Harley-Davidson Losing Market Share? Two analysts on Wall Street are pretty certain that Harley-Davidson lost market share in the first quarter 2016. John Tomlinson, an ITG Research analyst, estimated in a report that Harley’s quarterly U.S. retail sales fell as much as 7% to 32,995 motorcycles. That followed a report on Tuesday by David Macgregor, a Longbow Research analyst, that said Polaris Industries Inc.’s Indian brand had a strong quarter and probably cut into Harley’s market share. Harley-Davidson (HOG) will report 1st quarter earnings on April 19. Polaris Industries Inc. (PII) will release its first quarter 2016 financial results on Thursday, April 21, 2016
Victory Motorcycles Is Returning To The Pikes Peak Race To The Clouds With New Project 156 And Empulse RR Electric Model. The Project 156 prototype bike will be ridden by 2014 Pikes Peak Heavyweight Champion Jeremy Toye and the Empulse RR electric prototype (raced in last year’s TT Zero at the Isle of Man) will be ridden by Cycle World’s Road Test Editor Don Canet in the Electric Motorcycle Class. Don was the rider in 2015 of Victory Project 156. “We are eager to bring the Victory Racing team back to Pikes Peak this year to help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Race to the Clouds,” said Alex Hultgren, Director of Marketing for Victory Motorcycles.
New Royal Enfield’s 600-650cc Twin-Cylinder Motorcycle to Launch in 2017. Royal Enfield (Eicher Motors group) confirmed that the company will launch a new 600-750 cc twin-cylinder model currently code named the P61. Objective is to become the worldwide leader in the mid-size motorcycles segment, appealing to new clients in Europe, the US and Australia.
Harley-Davidson Of Topeka, Kansas To Build An Addition To House World’s Largest Assortment Of Evel Knievel Memorabilia. Knievel achieved fame as a daredevil and stuntman in the 1970s famous for motorcycle jumps. He died at age 69 in 2007. The total budget for the Knievel Museum project is estimated at $3.5 million. The city’s governing body on April 12 will consider approving a contract that would allocate to the museum $300,000 in revenue from the city’s transient guest tax, according to the preliminary agenda for that meeting. The city of Topeka levies the 7 percent transient guest tax, also known as the “bed tax,” on hotels and other businesses that provide temporary lodging. Those businesses pass the costs along to their guests. “The number of motorcyclists that seek us out is going to skyrocket,” says the document the city received last year from Mike Patterson, owner of Harley-Davidson of Topeka. “The motorcyclists who visit the museum will be more likely than most visitors to stay overnight in Topeka”
Daytona Beach Is New North America Headquarters For SBS. SBS is a world leader within the development, production and sales of disc brake pads and friction solutions for motorcycles, scooters, motorsport and special applications. SBS has announced that they have moved into their new North American offices in the heart of the action, Daytona Beach. SBS supplies both the OEM and aftermarket and offer a full range of compounds for all riding styles. Made in Denmark, SBS Friction is part of the SBS Group. The US address is 1500 Beville Rd., Suite 606-373, Daytona Beach, FL 32114
Royal Enfield has a long row to hoe if it’s going to be a world leader in anything. They can’t do it on price alone. Yugo proved that years ago.
Impatient to see the impact of Indian/Victory/Triumph/Ducati on Harley market share.
And in a related story, several scientists report water is wet 🙂 it’s impossible not to lose market share when a new company selling the exact same target vehicles comes into play. Someday if all companies report actual unit sales by type instead of vague financial totals, we will better know exactly what the situation is.
Woody’s. False. For ex if the company is perceived as selling me-too products, if the overall market grows and other situations. Not too good in marketing you are. indian & Victory could take market shares from other brands. But they take from Harley…
Woody..You’re correct. It sure would be interesting to know victory and indian unit sales as harley does. It would give us all a clearer picture of where everyone is at. There must be some reason polaris won’t share their sales numbers in units???
Donnie Surrey is correct to a point also but, I’m sure it’s a good bet that it’s not only harley thats lost some market share to victory and indian. To state that they are taking market share ONLY from harley is erroneous.
Harley is going down to 45%, Victory & Indian together shooting for 10% of US market share. If Polaris doesn’t give a breakdown of Victory & Indian sales (for now) it’s to not give any info to the competition on what is working (models) The SEC doesn’t require to give this breakdown.
Same to you Donnie ☺☺☺ The market for 100+ year established products isn’t going to suddenly expand if more players get in-it’s simply going to be diluted for the most part.
I’m not a fan of Polaris’ Victory or Indian models, but I can see how they appeal to others and more competition in the market can’t be anything but good for everyone. Harley isn’t going away any time soon obviously, but they also haven’t had real competition in the domestic market for a very long time.
Chief Waldo I agree Royal Enfield can’t do on price alone. The difference between Yugo and RE is that RE is investing money and R & D into their product. Unlike Yugo which just bought the rights to an old Fiat and never updated it. RE actually puts out a decent bike.
I can guarantee you that Polaris feels no obligation whatsoever to satisfy your curiosity about how many bikes they make. If the SEC or their own board doesn’t demand it, they aren’t going to tell Harley or Honda just so your curiosity can be fulfilled. I do believe a big reason for purchasing Indian was because Victory was pulling market share primarily from the foreign brands. It wasn’t old enough or fake old enough to appeal to Harley buyers. Indian on the other hand, is pulling primarily from Harley, and not so much from foreign brands. I got this impression from talking to multiple dealers.
Ryder & Bob, I agree and understood that it’s not a requirement, I only stated that “if all companies report ” because right now Harley is freer with this info than Polaris/Indian. I suppose that could just mean Harley is stupid for releasing the numbers. The auto industry in general doesn’t feel a need to hide sales info and let it fall where it may. I think Polaris feels secrecy is needed and while I respect that, it doesn’t mean I agree. Personally I thing they’re just afraid people will compare numbers instead of ads & slogans, so they’re probably doing the right thing for them.
Yes Im not a fan of Vindian’s but sure like the New Bonnies and even the Ducati scrambler but all we seem to hear about on here is how good Vindian’s going and nothing about the others.
Biased ????? of course not 🙂
Woody’s I get what you’re saying but I think it’s about a company’s BoD, not fear of public embarrassment. In the case of Harley I bet if you go back in time to when Harley had less direct competition, and was in need of investors, those investors demanded to know as much to measure the performance of the management staff they installed at the company. I suspect right about now they are wishing they didn’t have to continue. Conversely Polaris investors are thrilled with the returns they’ve been getting for years now so not much noise being made to change the way anything is reported.
We have re-hashed this production issue before. While bike manufacturers do not directly divulge specific model sales, that information is readily available via third party aggregators who get it from the DMVs of every state (or a sampling of states). New registrations are (mostly) public information. It is an expensive report, but you can rest assured that the manufacturers know exactly what their competitors are selling month by month, as do the stock analysts.
Enfield parallel twins were winning classic races well into the 70’s. A new version of the Constellation would be way cool…. 🙂
-nicker-
I find these production numbers, nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
Harley isn’t giving you units sold. It is giving you units shipped to it’s dealers.
In the past, when every bike sold it was pretty accurate. Not so much any more.
Victory/Indain is hitting mostly HD with its sales. However the others are suffering too and rightly so. The Indians and the scout in particular are very good and priced right. HD’s are pretty good but they are not priced anywhere near right for what you are getting compared to others. In 05 I bought a Yamaha Road Star for literally half the going price of a similar HD at the time. And before some get their panties in a wad I have owned many HD’s and owned 2 when I bought the Yamaha. I had no way to justify spending that much more for a name and brand with sub par performance and reliability.
Thanks Bob, I’d forgotten the BoD connection. I’m thinking H-D should re-think how (if) it releases sale stats if it can pitch it to the BoD correctly. There’s no reason to divulge what others don’t. No body’s doing anything wrong per se, but P/I is doing it smarter. I guess what I’m most tired of is all smack talk or speculation by followers (or corporate shills) without any apples/apples stuff to back it up. Gets old after a while 😉
Agreed. Ever since Victory came out some Harley fans prognostications bordered on cheering for Victory’s demise. Same thing with Indian. Still see it going on today. And now that H-D’s sales are sliding some non-Harley riders seem to be doing a victory dance (no pun intended). I don’t need the corporation I purchased a bike from to outperform its competition to validate my purchasing decision. I hope all the brands succeed beyond expectations and if hardly anybody chooses the same bike as me I don’t care. Heck I’d probably like it, if I had a Ural I’d ride that thing at a wide open throttle 50 mph with a smile on my face!