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Wyoming Republicans Propose Ban on Electric Car Sales

from https://www.newsmax.com A group of Republican state legislators in Wyoming have proposed a ban on electric vehicles in the state until 2035 in an attempt to protect the oil and gas industries. A group of Republican state legislators in Wyoming have proposed a ban on electric vehicles in the state until 2035 in an attempt to protect the oil and gas industries. The bill, which was introduced on Friday, states: “The proliferation of electric vehicles at the expense of gas-powered vehicles will have deleterious impacts on Wyoming’s communities and will be detrimental to Wyoming’s economy and the ability for the country to efficiently engage in commerce.” Wyoming state Sen. Jim Anderson, a Republican and one of the bill’s sponsors, told The Cowboy State Daily that the legislation came after several states moved to ban the sale of gas combustion cars, and noted that if the measure passes, “The Legislature would be saying, ‘If you don’t like our petroleum cars, well, we don’t like your electric cars.’ ” Co-sponsor Sen. Brian Boner said that the resolution would be a symbolic measure, but that it would still be meaningful. “One might even say tongue-in-cheek, but obviously it’s a very serious issue that deserves some public discussion,” Boner said. “I’m interested in making sure that the solutions that some folks want to the so-called climate crisis are actually practical in real life,” he added. “I just don’t appreciate when other states try to force technology that isn’t ready.”  

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Harley-Davidson Reports Global Bike Sales Up 24 Percent In 2021 Q2

You can read the Company Announcement at their Official Website by Clicking Here. Second Quarter 2021 Highlights and Results, and Recent Announcements Delivered Q2 GAAP diluted EPS of $1.33, up $1.93 over Q2 2020 Q2 H-D, Inc. total revenue up 77 percent over Q2 2020 North America Q2 retail sales up 43% over Q2 2020 and up 5% over Q2 2019 Delivered strong Motorcycles and Related Products (Motorcycles) segment gross margin and operating margin driven by the Rewire product portfolio adjustments Delivered Financial Services segment Q2 2021 operating income growth of $90 million over Q2 2020 driven by a lower provision for credit losses Launched LiveWire as a standalone brand and introduced LiveWire ONE™ – the electric motorcycle built for the urban experience, with the power and range to take you beyond Revealed Sportster® S, the all-new Sportster motorcycle built on the Revolution Max platform Launched H-D1™ Marketplace today, the ultimate online destination for pre-owned Harley-Davidson motorcycles in North America Rolling in the right direction. by Janaki Jitchotvisut from https://www.rideapart.com On July 21, 2021, Harley-Davidson reported its 2021 Q2 results. The numbers are definitely moving in the right direction, especially when compared to the same time period in 2020. Worldwide Harley motorcycle sales are up 24 percent, due entirely to an impressive sales rebound in North America. North American sales are up 43 percent year-on-year in Q2, which is the only positive number when broken down by sales region. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (commonly referred to among some OEMs as “EMEA”) are down by 7 percent for the same time period. Asia Pacific sales are down 13 percent, and Latin America sales are down 31 percent. Taking the entirety of the first six months of 2021 into consideration, worldwide Harley-Davidson bike sales are up 18 percent—which is still

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Annual Steel Horse Rally at Arkansas

When 20,000 motorcyclists converged on Fort Smith in Arkansas for the annual Steel Horse Rally, Meridian Rapid Defense Group was there to ensure a safe and memorable event. Large parts of the downtown needed to be closed off to cars and trucks but still left open for the bikers to enter and that’s where Meridian’s Archer 1200 barriers were the perfect fit. https://www.thesteelhorserally.com/ The Steel Horse Rally is a motorcycle gathering held on Fort Smith’s Garrison Avenue to benefit local charities. This year again, more than $100,000 was raised and an estimated $4.2 million of revenue flowed into city business over the two day rally in May. Meridian’s CEO Peter Whitford said, “In this situation with a huge number of motorcycles and crowds on the streets, safety was of the utmost importance. By correct placement of our barriers, we were able ensure that cars and trucks were kept out of the mix.” Meridian’s fully certified deployment team moved in with Archer barriers and quickly secured the street. The barriers, which carry the full certification of The SAFETY Act and each are made of 700 lbs of U.S. steel, were set far enough apart that bikes could easily pass through while larger vehicles were blocked from entering the rally area. The Archer barrier can be moved by one person and can stop a vehicle hitting it head-on at speed. Capt. Daniel Grubbs from the Fort Smith Police Department explained that security was a big factor, “We set out to ensure the safety of the motorcycle riders and the general public during this event.” Before the event Meridian worked with the city and organizers to prepare a fully certified vehicle safety mitigation plan. “The rally was all about people enjoying themselves safely,” said Mr. Whitford. “And, importantly, raising money for local charities.

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Harley-Davidson’s renewed focus on touring bikes drives upbeat forecast

by Reuters from https://www.investing.com U.S. motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) on Monday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its full-year forecast for sales growth, as its focus on bigger and profitable touring bikes boost demand, sending its shares up more than 8%. Since the middle of last year, the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company, which has struggled to grow sales for the past several years, shifted its focus to big bikes, traditional markets such as the United States and Europe, and older and wealthier customers. In February, the motorcycle maker unveiled a new turnaround plan that targets low double-digit earnings growth through 2025. The company said its retail sales, a measure of demand at its dealerships, surged 30% to 32,800 motorcycles in North America in its first quarter. Retail sales in Europe, Harley’s second biggest market outside the United States, slumped 36% to 4,900 motorcycles, due to the company’s decision to stop selling its smaller and less profitable Street or Sportster motorcycles and shipping delays as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company said lower sales incentives and a cut in its selling, general and administrative expense lifted its motorcycle business operating margin by over 10 points to 18.5%. It now expects motorcycles business revenue to grow in the range of 30% to 35% in 2021, up from its prior estimate of between 20% and 25%. Harley’s net income jumped over threefold to $259 million in the quarter ended March 28, from $70 million a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $1.68 per share, beating analysts’ average estimate of 88 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The company’s revenue rose to $1.42 billion from about $1.30 billion.

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Why shortages of a $1 chip sparked crisis in the global economy

by Bloomberg from https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com The chip crunch was born out of an understandable miscalculation as the coronavirus pandemic hit last year. When Covid-19 began spreading from China to the rest of the world, many companies anticipated people would cut back as times got tough. To understand why the $450 billion semiconductor industry has lurched into crisis, a helpful place to start is a one-dollar part called a display driver. Hundreds of different kinds of chips make up the global silicon industry, with the flashiest ones from Qualcomm Inc. and Intel Corp. going for $100 apiece to more than $1,000. Those run powerful computers or the shiny smartphone in your pocket. A display driver is mundane by contrast: Its sole purpose is to convey basic instructions for illuminating the screen on your phone, monitor or navigation system. The trouble for the chip industry — and increasingly companies beyond tech, like automakers — is that there aren’t enough display drivers to go around. Firms that make them can’t keep up with surging demand so prices are spiking. That’s contributing to short supplies and increasing costs for liquid crystal display panels, essential components for making televisions and laptops, as well as cars, airplanes and high-end refrigerators. “It’s not like you can just make do. If you have everything else, but you don’t have a display driver, then you can’t build your product,” says Stacy Rasgon, who covers the semiconductor industry for Sanford C. Bernstein. Now the crunch in a handful of such seemingly insignificant parts — power management chips are also in short supply, for example — is cascading through the global economy. Automakers like Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG have already scaled back production, leading to estimates for more than $60 billion in lost revenue for the industry

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Harley-Davidson Has Missed the Mark in Electric Transportation

by Travis Hoium from https://www.fool.com The company can’t get over its past success. The iconic Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) brand is in trouble. The company has seen revenue fall for a half-decade, and earnings have evaporated. Strategies to get into electric motorcycles have largely failed, and the core business doesn’t show any signs of a turnaround. Despite all of these challenges, Harley-Davidson stock is up 82% over the past year, and investors seem optimistic about a turnaround. But there’s good reason to think that won’t happen for this leisure stock. Harley-Davidson’s motorcycle market is shrinking One thing is clear: Harley-Davidson’s market is getting smaller as the culture that brought the company to industry dominance diminishes. The customer base is aging, younger consumers are no longer interested in the look or sound of Harley-Davidsons, and growing markets adjacent to the motorcycle market have been difficult for the brand to enter. The biggest challenge is that Harley-Davidson was always a culture brand, and that’s what made it so powerful for decades. It wasn’t just motorcycles — it was people’s apparel, the sound the bikes made, and long rides on the open road. As more people move to urban markets and look for less disruptive means of transportation, the culture looks out of date. Going electric isn’t enough Harley-Davidson hasn’t been completely surprised by the industry’s changes — it saw the electric vehicle market coming to motorcycles. But it miscalculated what kind of products consumers want and where its brand can connect. The current LiveWire products are a similar form factor to traditional motorcycles, but that’s not where consumers are trending. Electric scooters are really where the growth has been, with Statista estimating that about 50 million electric scooters and bicycles were sold in 2020. Grand View Research estimates the electric scooter market will grow

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Harley borrows Detroit’s used-car playbook to pursue younger riders

from https://www.channelnewsasia.com Harley-Davidson has decided the best way to get younger customers to buy a new motorcycle is to sell them a used one first. The Milwaukee-based company plans to roll out a certified pre-owned bike program, known as H-D Certified, adapting a strategy carmakers have been following for years to position well-tended used vehicles as a substitute for low-margin, “entry-level” new models. Harley’s embrace of used bikes is part of a new five-year turnaround strategy under Chief Executive Jochen Zeitz, and is the latest effort to expand the brand’s appeal beyond middle-aged and affluent riders. The 118-year-old American brand has been steadily losing US market share amid declining retail sales for six years. But the demand for used Harleys, which are less expensive, has remained strong. Some dealers told Reuters that pre-owned bikes last year outsold new ones by three-to-one. Melissa Walters, owner of a Harley dealership in Fresno, California, says the coronavirus pandemic has led to an increased demand for outdoor recreational activity, but dealers are hard-pressed to find bikes to sell to customers. “People are tired of staying home,” she said. “They want to go out and do something.” That sentiment was echoed by over a dozen dealers in six states. Data from industry consultant JD Power shows Harley was the most sought-after brand in the used big bikes market last year, boosting bets the certified program will draw in new customers. For Harley, it offers a way to build brand loyalty and attract new customers without engineering and manufacturing new lower-cost bikes, which tend to have lower profit margins. “We believe this program will drive Harley-Davidson desirability, increase sales and margins, and enhance the overall customer experience while supporting growth,” Zeitz told Reuters. Under the pre-owned bike program, which was revealed last month, Harley will certify

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Attendance down, but spending up at 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

by Siandhara Bonnet from https://rapidcityjournal.com Leading up to the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the city and attendees expected changes in cleaning, events and sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they didn’t expect to see historically high numbers in first-time attendees, vendors and spending. City Manager Daniel Ainslie said it was also a surprise to see the number of people that came to the city a week or two before the rally began. “Everyone kind of thought the rally was going to be incredibly small because people are coming the week and two weeks before,” he said Friday. “We heard from vendors, too. Vendors haven’t been able to work since March … and were looking for an opportunity to do something.” According to the Department of Transportation, the seven-day total for the rally from Aug. 7 was 365,979 people, which is down just by 7.5% compared to last year at the same time. Ainslie said based on surveys the city has done, the demographic is slightly shifting for the rally, although the data isn’t finalized and won’t be until after the rally is completely over. He said the city is seeing a drop off in the attendance of those in the 60-70 age range, which is understandable especially during the pandemic. He said there’s been an increase in those in their late 20s to early 30s. “They say they’re coming because they’re looking for something to do,” he said. “The rally continues to grow and attracts a wider and wider audience that over the past 10 years, we’ve seen a larger and larger international presence.” With the exception of this year, due to travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Ainslie said, though, that it shows the rally is becoming a “slice of Americana” that’s appealing to an international audience. Robin

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Suzuki’s profit beats estimate, steps up dividend

from https://www.reuters.com TOKYO (Reuters) – Suzuki Motor (7269.T) posted its lowest annual operating profit in four years on Tuesday as the coronavirus pandemic hit demand for its cars, but the earnings beat estimates and the Japanese automaker raised its dividend, sending its shares surging. Profit came in at 215.1 billion yen ($1.99 billion) for the year to March, down 34% from a year ago and its lowest since the year ended in March 2016. But it was higher than an average estimate of 201 billion yen profit drawn from 15 analysts polled by Refinitiv. Suzuki, the country’s No. 4 automaker, declined to give an earnings forecast for the current business year, citing uncertainties about the longer term impact of the coronavirus on its operations and sales. It announced a year-end dividend of 48 yen per share, up from 37 yen a year ago, which included a special dividend to commemorate the centenary of the company’s foundation. Suzuki shares soared as much as 9% on Tuesday. The automaker sold 2.85 million vehicles globally in the year to March, down 14% from a year ago. In India, where it sells roughly one in every two cars sold through its majority stake in Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MRTI.NS), the automaker sold 1.44 million units, down 18% on the year. India accounts for just over half of Suzuki’s global car sales. Suzuki has largely resumed full production of cars and motorcycles in Japan this week, while Maruti, India’s top-selling car maker, has also restarted domestic output, after a drop in demand due to the coronavirus and orders to curb movements of people forced manufacturers to shut factories in March. ($1 = 107.8300 yen)

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