Victory Motorcycles To Make Its Official Entry In India At end of 2013. India’s burgeoning motorcycle market has already attracted some of the most well-known names, be it Ducati, BMW Motorrad, Aprilia and Harley-Davidson. Victory motorcycles will initially be directly imported as CBUs from USA. with the Victory Vision and the Victory Cross Country Tour being the first models being introduced. The long-term plan, just like with Harley-Davidson, would include establishing an assembly plant in the country to bring down production costs. Victory currently has a host of international dealerships, including Australia, Canada, the UK, France, Sweden, Germany and Spain.
Steve Veltri Joins Mustang Seats. Long-time motorcycle industry sales and marketing executive Steve Veltri signed on with Mustang Motorcycle Products, LLC after a brief stint in the wholesale irrigation business. V-Twin dealers will recognize Steve from his time as the VP of Sales & Marketing for Custom Chrome for more than a decade, and it is this experience that makes him an ideal fit for Mustang. Veltri becomes Mustang’s Director of Sales, effective immediately. It’s Veltri’s work with a network of more than 5,000 Harley-Davidson® franchises and independent dealers around the world that solidified his opportunity with Mustang. After starting with CCI as a sales rep in 1991, Steve fast-tracked through the ranks, becoming a regional sales manager, national sales manager, VP of sales and ultimately VP of sales & marketing for the distribution company. All Mustang seats for Metric Cruisers and H-D® models are still handcrafted in the USA.
Harley-Davidson Inc. Will assemble 3 More Models In India And Cut Their Prices To Make Them More Affordable To The Country’s Price-Conscious Customers. The company will assemble the Fat Boy, the Fat Boy Special and Heritage Softail Classic models in India after importing kits from the U.S. The locally assembled models will cost between 1.5 million rupees ($27,342) and 1.7 million rupees, up to 23% cheaper than before. Harley already assembles half of the 12 models it sells in India at a facility at Bawal in the northern state of Haryana. The other models are imported as fully built units. Harley’s decision comes days after India decided to increase the import tax 75% from 60% on expensive motorcycles (at least 800 cc) and cars. Harley’s India head Anoop Prakash said the impact on higher taxes on its models will be “minimal” as the company is increasing motorcycle assembling in India.
Zero Motorcycles releases smart phone application Zero Motorcycles customers are able to customize their electric motorcycle’s performance and gather real-time statistical data via a new smart phone technology that is embedded in this year’s line of bikes. Once paired to a motorcycle, owners can customize settings. The technology “pushes” live, or archived, information from the motorcycle to the rider’s mobile device. Riders can display a customizable dashboard to show how well it’s charged and monitor torque, drivetrain component temperatures, and battery amps. When parked, owners can view a history of data, including an estimate of how much gas money they have saved and how much carbon dioxide wasn’t released into the air. The free app also allows owners to send diagnostic reports directly to a technician for remote troubleshooting. The Zero Motorcycles app marks the first time in history that a production motorcycle’s top speed, torque and regenerative braking can be easily adjusted by an owner in seconds,
Congratulations Steve Great to see you back in the industry. Mustang is a great company.
LenNY Sinnet
NEWS FLASH !!!! india raises import tax on 800cc and larger assembled motorcycles, what a surprise, a calculated way of sucking in manufacturing to your country and OUT of the US, stay tuned for more “surprises”.
The real question being …. how soon till those India built bikes find their way onto US showrooms ?
GuitarSlinger, if the Indian-built bikes require fewer warranty services and recalls than union-made US bikes, do you think we could special request them starting this afternoon? Please?
Why doesn’t the US impose a 65-70% import tax on stuff from India (and China and Malaysia)? That’ll turn things around quick over here.
Fritz – The question every thinking person for decades has been asking ….. with no one in charge answering in the slightest .
.357 Magnum … if you think US Union built products are bad … wait until you’ve dealt with India’s ( cough hack sputter sputter ) ‘ quality control ‘ …. cause you aint seen nuthin yet brother
The stuff assembled in India is US made bikes disassembled here then reassembled there to skirt around the tariff. No actual production is taking place there to then import back here. CBU = Complete Built Unit, CKD = Complete Knock Down.
As for why we don’t tax their imports at 60-70%…well sometimes we do as a punitive measure but by and large we don’t because it’s bad for our own economy. We tried it before and it doesn’t work. Think of it like this. Your Harley built in York, Milwaukee, or KC currently has a lot of foreign sourced parts on it. Suppose we tax the imports at 70%…the government gets a short term bump in revenue, but it’s not India and China paying the tax, it’s Americans who buy Harleys. Except because the Harleys are now a lot more expensive fewer are sold, so tax revenue goes back down and Harley has to lay off workers because they’re not selling as many bikes. All the way around bad for us. Someday the Indians and Chinese will figure it out too.
Like Bob S said, and it’s been pointed out here many times. This is actually keeping our guys here in York, Milw & KC working more-building products shipped to other countries. Isn’t that what we all want? People sending money INTO the USA for OUR products instead of the other way around? I’d think folks would be more upset with all the IT, electronic assy. & engineering jobs other US companies have outsourced to India, providing them the money to buy these bikes in the first place. At least whenever someone in India who got some Dell, Time Warner, whatever tech supports’ job buys a Harley in India we get some of the money sent back here.
Why doesn’t the US Govt impose a 65-70% import tax on ‘stuff’ from China? Given China holds over $1 trillion in US debt reserves, and your Govt borrows around 1/3 of $billion per DAY from China just to keep your country afloat you really don’t want to piss them off because in reality they own you and could end the US economically on a whim. Thankfully the US thirst for cheap ‘stuff’ from China means the US is about their biggest customer, so it’s in their interests (in some weird way) to keep letting you borrow your way deeper and deeper into the hole so long as you keep buying their ‘stuff’.
27 thousand is still alot of money for any kind of motorcycle…what’s H-D building their bikes out of….gold?
What’s up, every time i used to check weblog posts here early in the dawn, because i like to find out more and more.