News: PowerTALK

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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A New Class of Hybrids

The word “hybrid” in the power generation universe has generally been understood to mean a fossil-fuel engine supplemented by another power source, usually a renewable.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

Then, the word grew to include vehicles and equipment that ran primarily on battery power but could be switched to a smaller engine that would recharge the battery while it ran.

Now, we are entering a time when “hybrid” includes drive systems that are primarily renewable-based and supplemented by an additional renewable system.

In this sphere, alternative power has primarily meant batteries and hydrogen fuel cells; one of the major impediments to wide adoption has always been range.

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Vertical Integration Is Key for Competitive Battery Vehicles

R&D World magazine recently examined the global market for lithium-ion batteries and concluded that there could very well be a shortage in the next decade. They projected that recent investments will ensure supply keeps ahead of demand for at least the next two years, but that the demand for lithium in 2030 will be 2.3x higher than the global output in 2019, and investments may not be happening at the pace needed to meet it.

Tyler Wiegert
Tyler Wiegert

The main bottleneck is that it takes 5-10 years to bring a new lithium or cobalt mine online, but their low prices right now remove some of the incentive to make those investments.

In the absence or shortage of those investments, control of current resources will play a critical role in the production costs of lithium-powered equipment, including on-highway vehicles. In this area, as in many others, Tesla appears to be a leader. The electric car maker has made a number of moves recently to pursue vertical integration, including, most recently, signing a supply deal with Hanwha for battery production equipment. But they are also making moves to secure ownership of the raw materials needed for battery production.

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2020-05-15

Brazilian Production and Sales of Commercial Vehicles Won’t Recover Until 2021

Power Systems Research analyzes markets of trucks, buses, agricultural and construction machines

Brazil deaths caused by coronavirus increased sharply in April and May 2020.

Slump Caused by COVID-19 Will Last into 2021

The overall slump in production and sales of heavy commercial vehicles (trucks and buses) as well as for agricultural and construction machines should last throughout this year; these segments won’t recover until 2021.  PSR

Automotive Business – April 2020 – English version

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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RUSSIA REPORT: April 2020

Large Russian Automakers Resume Work After One Week Stop

Many automakers who suspended work March 30 in Russian, as ordered by the government to the reduce spread of the COVID-19 resumed work April 6. The firms including KAMAZ, AutoVAZ, GAZ Group, Mazda Sollers.

Maxim Sakov
Maxim Sakov

However, 98% of office personnel are working remotely. Started working YAMZ, Yaroslavl plant of diesel apparatus and some production lines of Likino bus plant. Procurement production of GAZ plant in Nizhny Novgorod is also working. Schedule of main production lines will be determined within a week depending on situation on suppliers’ plants.      Read The Article

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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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China Delays Nationwide NS 6 Regulation

The Ecology and Environment Ministry is extending the transition period for OEMs and the sales period for NS 5 inventory products.

Source: China Central Television      Read The Article

PSR Analysis:

So here comes the impact of coronavirus for the industry.  But what we should bear in mind is that despite this latest news, the capital metro area, the Yangtze delta area and the Zhujiang River Delta area, three of the most prosperous areas in China, have already implemented NS 6 regulation. 

These regions can’t roll back their policy. If any OEMs not ready to go NS 6, they should do it now.  COVID-19 buys some time, but it won’t be so forever.    PSR

Qin Fen is Business Development Manager

First FOTON Produced in New Brazil Plant

The first units of the 3.5-ton LCV have been assembled at the GEFCO Plant in Guaíba-RS as the company begins producing under a manufacturing contract for Foton.

Source: AutoData     Read The Article

PSR Analysis: 

Despite this news, the speed of the development of the new line will be reduced by COVID-19 and related factors, including the social restrictions and workforce mobility, the impact in the LCV segment and also the lack of parts from China, major part of the content of these Trucks.     PSR