Sturgis Buffalo Chip owner Rod Woodruff has moved to strengthen his management team with the hiring of Robert Pandya as COO of his 600-acre concert and camping venue. Pandya is described as having "nearly three decades of powersports experience working for European and American brands, including Aprilia, Victory and Indian Motorcycles." Woodruff is quoted as saying that "it's been a great run and we are proud to keep growing. Now is the time to reset, refresh and start planning our 50th anniversary in 2031. The family is ready to tackle big ideas, and bringing Robert onto the team is going to help us deliver."
Polaris has launched an all-new, all-electric Ranger XP Kinetic UTV. An entirely new, quiet electric powertrain has been derived from Polaris' partnership with Zero Motorcycles - featuring fewer moving parts for lower maintenance costs and more uptime for increased productivity. It is a 3-seater with the Premium model equipped with 14.9 kWh of lithium-ion battery capacity, offering an estimated range of up to 45 miles.
H-D remained in 6th place in market share terms in Germany for the first 11 months of the year, with a 6.86% share (7,728 units sold), which is substantially down on its 2020 YTD performance (8.32% share/10,299 units). Its bestseller has been the Street Bob 114 in 36th spot with 939 units sold YTD, followed by the Sport Glide in 38th spot (868) and the Breakout 114 in 43rd place (780). Indian was in 14th spot with a 1.49% share (1,685 units sold), which is down on 2020 YTD in units sold terms, but modestly up in market share. BMW remained market share leader in Germany for the first 11 months, followed by Honda, KTM, Kawasaki and Yamaha.
C & B Operations, a family-owned dealer group that operates 37 John Deere dealerships in South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Iowa and Idaho, has bought Okoboji Indian and Okoboji Motorsports in Spirit Lake, Iowa (where the Indian factory is), and established a new division called C & B Powersports. Okoboji Motorsports offered Polaris off-road vehicles, Polaris snowmobiles, Slingshot and Genuine Scooters. Okoboji Indian exclusively offers the entire line-up of Indian Motorcycles. The name of the store will change to C & B Powersports.
Ski-Doo, Can-Am and Rotax owner BRP, has reported Q3 revenues down by -5.2% (CAN $1,588.0m) representing a "previously anticipated decrease of product deliveries mainly caused by supply chain disruptions." Revenues were CAN $5,300.4m for the nine-month period ended October 31, 2021 (+28.1%). It has seen market share gains in ORV and PWC in North American powersports, despite retail sales being down by -20% (compared to a 2020 third quarter) due to limited product availability in the network.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com