News: Recreational Products

2020-05-23

COVID-19 Cuts Results at Harley-Davidson, Polaris

Harley-Davidson Q1 2020 Sales Plunge 15.5%

Harley-Davidson said US sales were up 6.6% in the quarter before the pandemic ground the economy to a halt in mid-March. But sales wound up plunging 15.5% in America compared to a year ago and 20.7% internationally. Overall revenue slipped 8% from last year’s first quarter.

For the quarter, Harley-Davidson posted earnings of $69.7 million compared with $127.9 million in the same period a year ago.

Michael Aistrup
Michael Aistrup

Harley-Davidson’s share in the U.S. heavyweight motorcycle market share was down 2.2 percentage points, to 48.9% and the company’s share of the heavyweight motorcycle market in Europe was 7.6% in the first quarter.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Harley has reduced planned capital spending, frozen hiring, temporarily reduced salaries, eliminated merit increases for employees in 2020 and changed the timing of new product launches in order to preserve $250 million in 2020.

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2020-04-25

TAIWAN REPORT: No New Coronavirus Cases

April 17, 2020–Taiwan reported no new coronavirus cases on April 14, 2020, marking the first-time authorities there have reported zero new cases in more than a month. It’s also the latest achievement for a health system that first acted to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in December.

Erik Martin
Erik Martin

With a population of around 23 million, Taiwan has only 393 confirmed COVID-19 cases; six people have died from the disease. The last time Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center announced no new cases was on March 9 – 36 days ago.

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Impact of COVID-19 in India on Engine-driven Applications

As of today, India is relatively less impacted by COVID than other nations. Because of the very bold and unprecedented move of a complete lockdown for about 40 days, India has managed to restrict the number of positive cases to 17,000.

Ritvik Kulkarni
Ritvik Kulkarni

Considering that India is a country with a population of over 1 billion persons living in challenging on-ground conditions, it is a phenomenal effort of proactive and timely response from the government as well as restraint observed by citizens.

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Q1 2020 Motorcycle Production in Brazil Was Strong But Will Drop in April

Different from the segments with 4 wheels or more, Motorcycles plants worked normally in March. The total production has been of 296 k motorcycles in the first quarter, about 7% above the same period of 2019. However, the stops in this sector started March 30 and will remain until the beginning of May.

Source: AutoData     Read The Article

PSR Analysis:

Although motorcycles are also a way of delivering packages in big Cities, sales of motorcycles in Brazil have a closer relationship with lower income individuals who see motorcycles as an alternative to bad public transportation or even animal transportation in rural locations.

This segment of the society has a high number of informal jobs, mostly related to service, heavily impacted by the social restriction measurements. Therefore, the impact on this business for the remainder of the year should be considerably high, despite of the growth in the first quarter. PSR

2020-04-24

Outdoor Recreation Group Creates COVID-19 Guide

The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), a coalition of outdoor recreation trade associations and organizations, has published on their web site (www.recreationalroundtable .org) a guide for their members on the Outdoor Recreation Industry and the Coronavirus. Included on the site are Federal, State and Industry Resources, ORR’s letter to the President, Governors and Federal Government on the impact and recommendations to the Coronavirus crisis.

The site also has suggestions on what small businesses and policy makers can do to support efforts to combat the virus. The link for the informational site at ORR is: https://recreationroundtable.org/coronavirus/

PSR can support members of many of these organizations with focused and accurate forecasts of global diesel and gas engine production.  PSR


Michael Aistrup is a Senior Analyst

2020-03-23

RUSSIA REPORT, March 2020

This report includes updates on these manufacturers: Haval, Claas, Aurus, and KAMAZ.

Haval To Build Engine Plant in Russia

This article first appeared in the March 2020 issue of PowerTALK™ News

Haval, the Chinese manufacturer, said it plans to build its own engine plant in the Tula region of Russia. Work is scheduled start this month (March 2020). The planned investment in the project is US$ 270 million. This information comes from press-service of Haval Motor Rus.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

It’s expected that the new plant will produce 80,000 engines annually, increasing the localization level of SUVs by several thousand units annually. Total personnel number in automotive plant exceeds 1000 people.    Read The Article

PSR Analysis: The first Russian Haval plant opened in May of 2019. Current production capacity is 80 Haval SUVs. The plant will be located on a 10,000 sq.m. site next to the Haval automotive plant. It will provide more than 300 jobs.

Claas is Shifts Production of Tucano 320 Harvester To Russia.

In April 2020, Russian plant Claas in Krasnodar will start producing the Tucano 320 grain combine. During the first two years, this model will be produced simultaneously in Germany and in Russia. Beginning in 2022, the plant in Krasnodar will became the sole maker for this model. The move opens opportunities to increase production and export volumes for the Russian plant.

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2020-03-22

2020 NA Utility Vehicle Production: 436,700

This article first appeared in the March 2020 issue of PowerTALK™ News

This is the estimate by Power Systems Research of the number of Utility Vehicles to be produced in North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States) in 2020.

DataPoint

This information comes from industry interviews and from two proprietary databases maintained by Power Systems Research: EnginLink™ , which provides information on engines, and OE Link™, a database of equipment manufacturers.

Market Share: With combined plant totals of 32%, Polaris leads in production of utility vehicles in North America. Polaris has plants in Mexico and the US. In second position is Honda with 13%, followed by Deere with 12%.

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2020-02-25

EV Postal Delivery Motorcycle Is Honda’s New Opportunity

This article initially appeared in the February 2020 issue of PowerTALK News.

JAPAN–Honda plans to introduce 200 electric motorcycles for postal delivery services by March 2020, and around 2,000 units are expected be introduced in FY2020. Approximately 85,000 postal delivery motorcycles are running in Japan today, and all are made by Honda. There are also three-wheel models, but most are Super Cubs, which has a reputation for reliability. At first, these EV bikes will be deployed in Tokyo, where the driving range is small, and in other local ordinance-designated cities.

Akihiro Komuro
Akihito Komuro

The base unit is the electric motorcycle for business use, the Benly e-series. Honda will start selling it to corporations in April 2020. This is a 96V system in which two lithium-ion batteries with a voltage of 48V are connected in series. Charging is performed by removing the battery from the vehicle and using a special charger; it takes about four hours to reach full charge from zero.

Honda says the bike has a maximum output of 3.8PS and achieves a 12-degree slope uphill performance with maximum load capacity. The cruising range is 87km for Benly e: I and 43km for Benly e: II. According to Honda officials, the bike can be operated for one day considering the delivery range, but in most cases it will return to the post office during lunch break, and a battery can be replaced at that time.

Source: Response

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We Expect 2020 NA Overall OEM Production To Be Flat

This article initially appeared in the February 2020 issue of PowerTALK News.

SUMMARY.  The North American economy remained stable in 2019 and pure economic conditions as well as fundamentals in the region were favorable. Most industries performed very well, and the short-term outlook remains stable to flat for most market segments. However, we see many new developments that could suggest a shift in the trend.

Yosyf Sheremeta
Yosyf Sheremeta

Consumer confidence declined slightly in December, following a moderate increase in November.  The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index stood at 126.5 in December, 1.4 points higher than in September 2019. 

Per Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board: “While consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved, their expectations declined, driven primarily by a softening in their short-term outlook regarding jobs and financial prospects. While the economy hasn’t shown signs of further weakening, there is little to suggest that growth, and in particular consumer spending, will gain momentum in early 2020.”

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