Harley-Davidson made it into Trump's Twitter tweets
And that even twice within a few hours. It seems as if the situation is escalating, the iron has never been as hot as it is now! Harley-Davidson has announced that they want to move some of their production abroad by 2019.
That's not at all what Trump wants to hear, after all, he only started the international trade dispute to bring more companies and the associated production into his own country.
To strengthen existing ones and then a message like this comes from a traditional manufacturer that probably made the walls shake in the White House. He is a Harley-Davidson fan himself and, as usual, gave vent to Twitter
Trump 's supporters include many US bikers and patriotism is taken very seriously in the USA.
America is still the most important market for the traditional manufacturer. There is currently the impression that Harley-Davidson because of the punitive tariffs , but that is only half the truth.
The new structural plans were already in place last year and in January of this year the first reports came that employees were being laid off or relocated from the Kansas City plant.
The V-Rod made in Kansas is history, we expect a complete new edition of it by the end of August (crystal ball).
The plausibility arises from the fact that the original Dynas, V-Rod and Sportster model ranges were produced Kansas City Softail series according to the new module concept is produced at the plant in York / Pennsylvania .
One frame for many models saves money and Harley-Davidson has to save money to be competitive in the long term.
Who are Harley-Davidson's competitors?
The real question is, who are Harley-Davidson's competitors? Victory is over, Indian's registration numbers are not a hit either and the faction from Japan is only riding the small wave or has already drowned in the cruiser sector.
BMW are very successful on the market and KTM is on a very good path, but among the BMW drivers we know that there are some of them who, in addition to the BMW, also have the Harley-Davidson in their garage.
A new BMW Cruiser is expected next year, but Harley-Davidson fans will certainly not attack it now.
What does that tell us? The competition is manageable, but unfortunately so is the circle of customers, the young customer is difficult to activate, the company still has a lot of work to do in this area and the area of social media, where the young target group hangs out, is still for many Harley dealers a red cloth.
Harley themselves are still there, but they can't get around it and budget cuts aren't helping the cause.
So we already know that in the future we will have to find ways to bring costs and returns into a profitable balance. The Harley dealer needs his annual sales figures and therefore attractive models and offers for his customers to keep everything running, whether it is a small or large authorized dealer, that doesn't count.
Trump is certainly not entirely wrong in his assumption that the punitive tariffs may just be a pretext. If production is actually planned for the European market in Thailand in 2019, we'll get an ASIA Harley here, and you'll have to get used to the idea. Let's hope that it doesn't turn out that way and that it is only built in Thailand for the Asian market.
Whether you Trump or not, is he completely wrong in his demands? According to data from the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EU only allows 26% of its non-agricultural imports into the country without duty, while in the USA 48% is allowed in duty-free.
Stark differences in import duties for cars
And when it comes to car tariffs, the Europeans impose a 10% import tariff on US vehicles and the USA only imposes 2.5%. This is disproportionate, they should equalize or abolish tariffs, the mutual retaliation will only cause further damage.
Politics is becoming increasingly confused, things are becoming more and more determined in Brussels . In the future, we will have to pay particular attention to which party we vote for; we can no longer avoid the party programs.
The diesel scandal, the BAMF affair, driving bans, or the problems (harassment) at events and the general feeling of freedom speak their own words.
Politicians' obsession with rules is getting out of hand, and how the Euro standards are created is becoming more and more questionable; real experts seem to be in short supply there. We vote for the people who think they have to dictate our whole lives!
Of course we all want a clean environment, but we also live to live, building wind turbines and buying nuclear power in Belgium is simply nonsense!
The EU policy in particular seems to be completely wrong, just like with the punitive tariffs, we EU citizens will be the ones who will pay for this activism again, equalize the tariffs and the nightmare is over!
External link to Trump Twitter
Text: Harleysite/Wolf – This article is not affiliated with Harley-Davidson.
