Co-owners Al Rieman and Jim Burgess have sold Rapid City, South Dakota based Black Hills Harley-Davidson to Charlotte, North Carolina's Sonic Automotive - the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States (as measured by total revenues). Sonic now has 13 properties in its new powersports division, having acquired Mancuso Powersports in Houston and Horny Toad H-D of Temple, Texas, last year. Select Sonic properties sell a wide mix of brands such as Can-Am, Sea-Doo, Polaris, Kawasaki and Suzuki, through to Ducati, BMW, Honda, Indian Motorcycle and Yamaha.
Andreas Reibchen, Stephan Kaminski and Peter Eul, the managing directors of H-D Bielefeld, Düsseldorf and Osnabrück, will be adding a fourth H-D store to their network with the opening of the 3,000 sq m (approx. 30,000 sq ft) Harley-Davidson Köln-Bonn showroom, workshops and events facility at Wesseling, Germany, in April; www.hd-koelnbonn.de
With partners such as National Cycle and Mike Corbin, Eugene, Oregon based Arcimoto has announced that it has started production of its 2023 FUV and Deliverator electric vehicles, with first deliveries slated for March 2023.
Polaris has approved a 2% increase in the regular quarterly cash dividend, its 28th consecutive year of dividend increases. This raises the payout to $0.65 per share. It is effective with the 2023 first quarter dividend, payable on March 15, 2023 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 1, 2023.
Harley has launched H-D Collections, a grouping of "unique and distinct lifestyle apparel lines" aimed at groovy young folk who like their gear "defined by heritage and craftsmanship." Harley 'head boy' Jochen Zeitz said: "H-D Collections brings together the many facets of moto-culture lifestyle, paying tribute to our heritage with both Harley-Davidson Originals and Authorized Vintage, while pushing the limits of design, form and function with Bar & Shield." In addition to planned collaborations, three product lines are planned - Bar & Shield by Harley-Davidson, Harley- Davidson Originals and Harley-Davidson Authorized Vintage.
In preparation for the 97th ISDE, which will take place Nov. 6-11 in San Juan, Argentina, the AMA is changing how the U.S. ISDE qualifier process is staged for 2023. In an effort to improve rider turnout, reduce costs and event conflicts, instead of an ISDE qualifier series, two three-day qualifiers will be held - one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. They will be held in SC in February and Utah in March.
Through its venture capital fund BMW i Ventures, the BMW Group has taken a stake in U.S. (Colorado) based company Jetti Resources. "The goal is to foster responsible and resource-conserving copper extraction to address rising demand in a more sustainable way. Founded in 2014, Jetti Resources has developed a pioneering process for copper extraction that utilizes previously unused ore from existing copper mines."
BRP has reported Q3 revenues of CAN $2,709m, up +71% compared to the same period last year, a record performance for a single quarter in the company's history. Normalized EBITDA of $488m was up +94%. Retail sales up for powersports products were +43%, with market share gains for SSV unit sales in North America. Normalized diluted EPS of $3.64 is an increase of $2.16 per share or +146% and a record performance for a single quarter; diluted EPS of $1.76 was an increase of $0.23 per share, or +15%. As BRP's expansion activities continue, the quarter saw the Canadian manufacturer acquire 80% of the outstanding shares of Pinion GmbH, and the purchase of substantially all the assets related to the powersports business of Kongsberg Automotive ASA in Quebec.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com