The International Energy Agency says offshore wind could deliver 18 times today's global electricity demand - yet today's offshore wind market doesn't even come close to tapping the full potential. The IEA says that the high-quality resources available in most major markets mean offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 420,000 TWh per year worldwide and forecasts that capacity will increase 15-fold, attracting around $1tn of cumulative investment by 2040. Paris, France based IEA is an autonomous intergovernmental organization established in 1974 (within the OECD framework) in response to the 1973 oil crisis.
Zero Motorcycles is to team up with Reneos for battery collection and recycling in Europe. Reneos is a European partnership comprised of several major battery recycling and reconditioning companies. With effect from October 2020, Zero dealers in Benelux, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the U.K., Ireland, Austria and the Czech Republic can now take spent Zero batteries and recycle them in safe and efficient ways.
Avon Lake, Ohio based thermal and sound management specialist Design Engineering has announced stage two of its long-term, three-phase expansion project that will increase capacity at its Avon Lake headquarters facility. The company added 12,000 sq ft in 2013 and will now add a further 10,000 sq ft to take its total facility to some 35,000 sq ft.
Ducati has confirmed the arrival of its branded electric mountain bikes and street bikes at selected U.S. Ducati dealers. A year after the launch of the "Ducati Powered by THOK" project, the Ducati range of e-bikes built under license from THOK Ebike has expanded to include the Ducati E-Scrambler, MIG-S and TK-01RR. MSRP for the E-Scrambler starts at $3,995, with the top-of-the-line TK-01RR e-enduro bike at $7,995.
Malaysia looks set to be the latest market to clamp down on illegally modified motorcycles, according to RideApart, with loud pipes having fallen into the crosshairs of legislators. The police says that "modified motorcycles may be seized, and they must be restored to their original condition."
Since the summer of 2020, KTM dealers in USA have been able to sell KTM branded 'factory replica' electric balance bikes made by H-D owned subsidiary StaCyc. They can be operated like a regular bicycle, then riders can progress to a 3-level powered mode. There are two versions with larger 16eDrive for older children having 16" wheels, a 17" seat height and a high-performance brushless motor. Both versions are said to offer a 45-60 minute charge time and 30-60 minutes run time.
In automotive racing news, BMW Motorsport has announced that it is to call time on its ABB FIA Formula E World Championship involvement after the 2021 season. The move appears to signal that BMW is comfortable with the purpose the series has served for them and is now set to husband resources for a major future play on the EV space that Tesla had pretty much had to itself so far.
H-D finished 2020 in 7th place in motorcycle market share terms in Switzerland, with 1,972 units sold. Yamaha is market share leader in Switzerland, and its MT-07 the top-seller in a market that is small in total sales terms (29,450 units sold in 2020) but was up by +21.65% over 2019 and has one of the highest per capita motorcycle ownerships in the world in general, and specifically, one of if not the highest ownerships of Harleys per head of population of anywhere in the world.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, B&B, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com