pauljenkins
Registered user
From an industry insider I spoke to the other day.
Now that more and more countries are announcing the end of the sale of fossil fuels, the latest being the UK, BMW will most likely cease production of motorcycles.
The investment required to meet ever increasing emissions legislation, let alone a completely new method of propulsion for bikes, is crippling.
The motorcycle segment represents a very small percentage of BMW's business and for them, it just isn't worth it.
To be fair it's not just them.
Other manufacturers will be reviewing their long term strategy for motorcycles as well.
All of the Japanese manufacturers, with the exception of Yamaha, are not financially dependent on motorcycle sales and so will most likely be considering abandoning production of pretty much everything, as the costs will far out weigh even long term profit.
It's not just the introduction of electric power that is having an influence.
Other initiatives such as driverless technology, are making life very difficult.
It's hard to see where bikes fit in to any transport policy.
OK they could reduce congestion but the problem there is that bikes represent about 1% of road traffic, but account for 20% of fatalities.
So if bike traffic increased by just another 1% we would account for nearly half of all road fatalities.
The related costs, as far as our respective governments are concerns, easily out weighs ant perceived advantage in terms of congestion relief.
It's look pretty grim folks.
Enjoy your bikes now, because in 20 years it will all be over, I promise you.
Now that more and more countries are announcing the end of the sale of fossil fuels, the latest being the UK, BMW will most likely cease production of motorcycles.
The investment required to meet ever increasing emissions legislation, let alone a completely new method of propulsion for bikes, is crippling.
The motorcycle segment represents a very small percentage of BMW's business and for them, it just isn't worth it.
To be fair it's not just them.
Other manufacturers will be reviewing their long term strategy for motorcycles as well.
All of the Japanese manufacturers, with the exception of Yamaha, are not financially dependent on motorcycle sales and so will most likely be considering abandoning production of pretty much everything, as the costs will far out weigh even long term profit.
It's not just the introduction of electric power that is having an influence.
Other initiatives such as driverless technology, are making life very difficult.
It's hard to see where bikes fit in to any transport policy.
OK they could reduce congestion but the problem there is that bikes represent about 1% of road traffic, but account for 20% of fatalities.
So if bike traffic increased by just another 1% we would account for nearly half of all road fatalities.
The related costs, as far as our respective governments are concerns, easily out weighs ant perceived advantage in terms of congestion relief.
It's look pretty grim folks.
Enjoy your bikes now, because in 20 years it will all be over, I promise you.