News of Mercedes-AMG eyeing an acquisition of MV Agusta have been circulating for some time now, likely as the deal has continued to evolve between the two parties.
Now, Italy’s reliable Motociclismo is reporting that AMG has agreed to purchase a minority position, likely around 20% of the company, the announcement of which will be made at the EICMA show in Milan, Italy.
KTM continues to challenge BMW Motorrad as the top European motorcycle manufacturer (by sales volume), and has set a company record for sales in the first half of this year.
Selling 70,469 units in total, KTM is just shy of the 70,978 mark left by BMW Motorrad during the same sales period, so it will be interesting to see if the Austrian brand can close the gap in the final six months, as it has done the previous two years.
Friendly competition aside, the news is quite positive for KTM. The six-month sales figure represents a nearly 28% increase in unit volume, while top-line revenue is up 17.6% (€410.3 million, a record as well) and bottom-line income (EBIT) is up whopping 82.6% (€33.6 million). KTM has also increased its ranks by 204 people during the first half of 2014.
Interesting things are afoot in the electric realm. Mission Motorcycles is about to expand beyond the two-wheels, as the company becomes officially called Mission Electric. The change comes about as Mission plans to expand into the automotive and marine segments, though the San Francisco company isn’t saying yet who it is partnering with in those spaces.
Mission says it will continue to offer consumer-side products, like its current crop of electric motorcycles, the Mission R and Mission RS. However, its business model will expand to offer business-side electric drivetrain components, which was previously the realm of Mission Motors.
From what our sources say, this move will mean that Mission Motorcycles and Mission Motors will once again become one entity — loyal readers will remember that Mission Motorcycles was spun out of Mission Motors two years ago.
The restart of the German Horex brand hasn’t been an easy one, as we watched the company’s impressive plans for a supercharged VR6 roadster slowly become watered down into a handsome, although entirely uninteresting naked bike, which included the addition of the derivative “Classic” and “Cafe Racer” models as well.
It’s not that the Horex VR6 wasn’t received well, it’s just no one wanted to purchase the bike at its $30,000+ price tag, especially after the numerous production delays. As such, we sadly report that Horex has become insolvent, and filed for bankruptcy, according to reports out of Europe.
Donington Park is to host the British round of MotoGP in 2015. The Leicestershire circuit has reached agreement with the Circuit of Wales to host the British Grand Prix while the Welsh track is being built.
The Circuit of Wales was in talks with both Donington, which hosted the British Grand Prix from 1987 until 2009, and Silverstone, which hosted the race from 2010 until this year, but agreed more favorable terms with Donington.
The deal is a little more complicated than most contracts with racetracks. Dorna has a contract with the Circuit of Wales to host the race for the next five years, but the Circuit of Wales is yet to be built. Construction on the ambitious project has yet to be started, and the project is still a long way short of the money it needs for completion.
A couple days ago we ran a story that purported to show the front section of the 2015 BMW S1000RR in a CAD rendering. We already know from spy photos that the S1000RR is getting an update, and we are curious to see if BMW will introduce a symmertrical headlight, like it seems to be doing with the S1000XR sport-tourer.
The story was bogus, and as many of our readers pointed out in the comments, the photo in question was a rendering of the original S1000RR, circa 2009. I asked our good friend Iwan at Oliepeil, who has written several times here at A&R already, to elaborate on why this bogus story was run because it’s an important topic when it comes to digital publishing.
I don’t pretend to boast that Asphalt & Rubber is immune from the follies of online journalism, though we might be the most transparent. Any reader online, reading any subject matter, should consider their sources and apply critical thinking to what they read. If you’re ever looking for ours, they’re at the bottom of ever story, usually with a link. – Jensen
Maybe you’re asking yourself how all those websites and magazines are able to bring motorcycle news to you every day. Let us explain how that works, with an example.
Our amazingly handsome and hyper-intelligent Dutch friends at Oliepeil.nl, the best motorcycle website in the world, have quite a reputation of serving up scoops, for which they often upset the worldwide motorcycle industry complex, every now and then. We are also known for our pratical jokes.
So the site I run, Oliepeil, put up a photo of the 2011 BMW S1000RR on our website, with a hint and a link to a spyshot of the rumoured 2015-version of that bike here on Asphalt & Rubber. We didn’t use a real photo, but a rendering that we “borrowed” from a website that sells 3D CAD models. What happened afterwards shows how news is being made in 2014.
No sooner has Google built its first autonomous car, and been granted its autonomous vehicle driving license in the State of California, than the Silicon Valley company has begun paving the way for autonomous two-wheeled transportation.
Writing an email to the State of California to do away with legal wording that restricts autonomous vehicle licenses just to cars, Google’s Ron Medford hopes to allow driverless/riderless trucks and motorcycles on city streets, provided they prove the same safety standards as with Google’s autonomous car program.
“It is certainly possible that future testing could include motorcycles or larger commercial vehicles,” said Medford in his email. “If some innovator can demonstrate that testing autonomous technology on such vehicles is safe, then they should be allowed to test.”
BMW Motorrad’s second-quarter sales results are in, and the German brand has not only another record quarter to report, but also an all-time six-month top-sales record as well.
Selling 42,259 units in Q2 2014, BMW Motorrad sales are up 5.1%, with revenue up 11.2% to €528 million (€55 million EBIT). This sales volume represents an all-time second-quarter high for BMW motorcycles sales.
The news also makes the first half of 2014 the best six-month period, in the 90 years of BMW Motorrad’s history, of BMW motorcycle sales, with revenue up 9.8% to €1 billion, and unit sales up 9.3% to 70,978 units.
The US economy has been slow to recover, and so too has the US motorcycle market. With first-quarter sales down 0.3% this year though, it looked like the US motorcycle market was about to flatline.
Thankfully, that has not been the case in Q2 of 2014, as the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) is proud to report that US motorcycle sales are up 4.0% in the second quarter of this year.
Selling 169,111 units in Q2 2014 (6,585 more than in 2013), motorcycles sales in the US so far this year are now up 2.6%, with 263,833 units sold so far in 2014.
MV Agusta has announced its plan to grow the Italian motorcycle manufacturer’s presence in the USA, which includes strengthening the US dealer network, “enhancing connections” with existing customers, and increasing marketing investments.
To help implement these goals, MV Agusta has turned to E.I.M. for interim and permanent executive management solutions. MV Agusta also announced its intention for similar plans in Brazil, Asia, and select European counties (read: Germany, France, and the UK).
Honda Racing and Red Bull have announced an enhancement to their collaboration in MotoGP through the Repsol Honda team, which sees the energy drink company’s logo featured on Honda’s factory team starting in the 2015 season, as it becomes the official energy drink for the team as well.
The two parties have collaborated over the last nine years, but the Red Bull logo has never before been featured on the Repsol Honda machinery, despite Red Bull supporting both Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa with personal sponsorships.