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Cagiva is reborn as an electric motorcycle brand with affordable small bikes

February 2, 2020 Diana M. Cuyler Motorcycle Brand

The famous Italian motorcycle brand Cagiva looks set to make a comeback with a new range of motorcycles. Except unlike its classic gasoline models, Cagiva is reborn as an electric motorcycle company.

Founded in 1978, Cagiva originally focused on gasoline off-road motorcycles.

The brand has expanded its offering over time and the company has undergone various restructurings and changes in ownership.

The last Cagiva motorcycles rolled off the chain in 2012 when the company was owned by parent company MV Agusta.

MV Agusta had gone through his own series of financial hurdles, but now appears to be back on solid footing. With sales taking off, MV Agusta is now looking towards an electric future. And he plans to revamp the Cagiva brand to make it happen.

As MV Agusta first announced its aspirations to breathe new (and electric) life into Cagiva in 2018 with an accelerated schedule, the company has updated its plans and says the time is right. Over the next 12 months, Cagiva plans to launch its first electric motorcycle.

But don’t expect to see a fat electric sports bike like MV Agusta’s Italian cousin Energica. Instead, Cagiva is focusing on smaller electric motorcycles in the 4 kW (5.3 hp) range. I have long been a supporter of those electric motorcycles which bridge the gap between e-bikes and e-sports bikes.

Cagiva is expected to produce light electric motorcycles, perhaps similar to this Sur Ron Light Bee

So far, no one has seen an electric Cagiva model and there are no images or renderings yet to show what Cagiva is working on. But according to Canadian Automotive Guide, Cagiva’s parent company MV Agusta is teaming up with Chinese motorcycle company Loncin to build a new 350cc gasoline motorcycle.

While that might not mean much to electric motorcycle fans like us, consider this: Loncin recently showcased an impressive electric motorcycle produced under its premium subsidiary VOGE. The ER 10 electric motorcycle, with which we got closer at EICMA 2019 in Milan, perfectly matches what Cagiva is looking for: a light and low-power electric motorcycle in the equivalent range of 150 to 250 cm3.

At a top speed of 100 km / h (62 mph), the VOGE ER 10 sits somewhere between highway-compatible electric motorcycles like the entire Zero lineup and smaller electric motorcycles designed just for city commuting.

The VOGE ER 10’s liquid-cooled, 6 kW (8 hp) mid-drive, swingarm mounted motor of the VOGE ER 10 actually peaks at a higher power output and should be sufficient for sporty acceleration, especially on a bike that doesn’t. weighs only 115 kg (250 lbs).

The VOGE ER 10 electric motorcycle, from a Loncin subsidiary

And as if this story didn’t have enough layers already, we can take this a step further. The VOGE ER 10 is actually based on the Sur Ron White Ghost, an electric motorcycle design created by Sur Ron in 2018, but never released to the market. As the story unfolds, Loncin bought the rights to the White Ghost and used it to produce his first electric motorcycle under the VOGE brand.

All this to say that an electric motorcycle designed by a Chinese startup that could be produced by a premium Chinese subsidiary of a larger Chinese motorcycle company could serve as the basis for the first electric motorcycle produced by an Italian motorcycle brand revamped under the leadership of a larger Italian motorcycle maker who hopes to compete with a next wave of smaller Asian electric motorcycles. * Stop for the air *

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Harley-Davidson faces tough situation in motorcycle business

January 31, 2019 Diana M. Cuyler Motorcycle Business

The news for Harley-Davidson, America’s most famous motorcycle manufacturer, looks bad.

In business for 116 years, Harley disappointed Wall Street this week by saying it actually did not make a fourth quarter profit. He cited tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump that hurt Harley in growing markets outside of the United States.

This was a worrying sign, because while Harley has been under commercial pressure for years – its owner base is aging and motorcycle sales in the key US market are in terminal decline – it has also been a mainstay of revenue. Since 2006, the company has had exactly one quarter in which it grossed less than $ 1 billion, and that was during the financial crisis.

Harley’s top of the line is enviable, but it’s based on selling big bikes at high prices. This market has been dominated by HOG for decades, with alternatives provided by Japanese cruisers – great bikes, but without that Harley attitude, roar and V-stomp and, of course, outlaw credibility. .

Read more: Here are 4 big opportunities that Harley-Davidson will tackle in the future

But nowadays Harley faces local competition from a resurgent Indian Motorcycle, a historic rival that faded in the 20th century to come back under a new owner in the 21st. Brands such as Ducati and Triumph have made a better pitch with young riders, while urban and entry-level markets are under attack from new entrants like Royal Enfield.

The outlook for Harley isn’t as bad as the headlines. Trump’s damage is undermining the brand’s growth and profitability in Europe and Asia, but Harley already has her hands full to develop the right product for those markets. The major problem is the timing of the decline in the United States.

This deadline is almost a classic business school case study. It could take decades for Harley to enter a serious decline. With its flagship product, bicycles with displacements greater than 600 cubic centimeters, it controls half of the American market. It’s like General Motors in the 1950s – and although GM’s business declined after the Eisenhower era, it took 59 years for the automaker to go bankrupt.

Hard work for the CEO

Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich.

Thomson reuters

CEO Matt Levatich has a tough job ahead of him. He could presumably sit down and communicate to investors that even though stocks have fallen 45% over the past five years amid rapidly growing major stock indexes, Harley is paying a
from 3 to 4%, well ahead of the inflation rate. Those quarters of over $ 1 billion will continue to arrive. In the long run, everyone’s dead, but until then the only ride we could do is in the “Wild One” subdomain of Elon Musk’s Mars-based World Simulation.

Instead, Levatich tries to keep the business relevant, developing smaller bikes for new markets and younger urban riders, while also offering an electric bike, the $ 30,000 LiveWire, in the US market later this year. Harley has been here before – in the 1990s and early 2000s he supported a sports motorcycle brand called Buell, but put it to rest in 2009.

Harley has also tried to create a buzz around the legacy brand through merchandising, but it is more helpful to think of this as advertising. And it’s a big step to go from a $ 25 t-shirt to an entry-level $ 7,000 bike. (For starters, you have to learn how to ride it – something Harley does a great job of teaching through its dealerships – but it’s expensive and time-consuming.)

The news makes it look like Harley is doomed to fail. But it’s no more doomed than, say, Ford. The automaker is also over 100 years old, has seen its stock prices fall, is reinventing itself – and has made money for nearly a decade selling highly profitable full-size pickup trucks.

Obsession with Growth on Wall Street Makes Driving Difficult

The Harley LiveWire electric bike.

Harley davidson

Both companies are victims of Wall Street’s obsession with growth. Growth companies, historically, have been risky investments with stories to sell. You buy them knowing you could lose everything. Amazon changed that logic by fueling seemingly endless growth by forgoing stable earnings; the giant will not give in until the government accuses it of being a monopoly.

Harley doesn’t really need to grow, but because of that, investors have to pay a low stock price to access the company’s cash flow. Sadly, it’s a timed proposition, even though it will be the second Ocasio-Cortez administration before the last pig hits the road in the United States.

Meanwhile, Harley will stay cool. His product is glorious. Tariffs are generally bad business and could eventually go away. Electric motorcycles could become a thing. None of this will free Harley from the clutches of Wall Street short-termism, with markets pricing the stock for access to dividends rather than big future returns.

Worse yet, the sales trends and brand demographics are unlikely to reverse in the United States. But they’re not going to collapse either. This is why Levatich is in an impossible position. All About Harley makes a case for the stewardship of this latest group of baby boomers on their final commutes before heading to that big biker bar in the sky, while simultaneously bringing up a small group of members of Generation X and Generation Y on “real” motorcycles so that Harley’s decline was extremely gradual.

No CEO wants to oversee such a depressing narrative; as the generals say, nothing is more difficult than a combat retreat. What’s likely going to happen is that Harley will continue to struggle, at least until the next one.
– unless, of course, the company becomes delusional and borrows more money to continue growth, which adds to an already high debt situation.

Look, I know this is a little sad. But sometimes you have to accept that you are in the last chapter. Luckily for Harley, this chapter could take decades to write.

Does loyalty to the motorcycle brand still exist?

June 29, 2017 Diana M. Cuyler Motorcycle Brand

Thoughts on Motorcycle Brand Loyalty

It used to be conceivable that if you were happy with buying a new (or even used) motorcycle, you would be more inclined to buy a newer model from the same manufacturer. But after seeing most of my cycling friends not following this trend, I started to question this thought process. This led to the inevitable question: “Is there still such a thing as motorcycle brand loyalty? In fact, I didn’t have to look very far to find an answer, I was a perfect candidate. I have owned many motorcycles over the years and have moved from an older model to a newer model made by the same manufacturer only once (eg a 1987 Kawasaki Ninja 750R to a Kawasaki ZX-7 of 1992).So my answer to the proposed question would be a “no”. Whether it was style, price, technology, or a number of other factors, I chose to buy a competitor’s product from the current brand I was driving at the time. Now, if I said “yes” to that question, I’d probably be on my third or fourth generation Honda by now. But I am not. And I wondered what it would take for a company to build a brand that not only attracts customers, but also retains those customers three, four or five years later? Nowadays, motorcycle manufacturers have to accomplish both of these tasks. (and more) to increase their income and stay financially stable. That said, only a few in today’s market have a well-known and respected brand and have built a substantial relationship with their customers. For example, I would put Ducati on my list of super recognizable brands. The Italian brand understands how to not only market their product, but also the need for their customers to have a connection to the business…a family if you will. Jason Chinnock, CEO of Ducati North America, spoke about it at the launch of Ducati’s XDiavel: “The passion for two wheels, twin engines and beautiful roads is shared by everyone…as riders, we are part of a tribe, but we also embrace our individuality.

Ducati XDiavel

Similar to Ducati, Harley-Davidson would absolutely be on the super recognizable list. While they may not be leading the landscape with cutting-edge technology, there’s no denying the fact that Harley-Davidson has built a brand and it’s recognized around the world. As Willie G. Davidson said, “When you look up the word ‘motorcycle’ in the dictionary, there’s a picture of a Harley next to it..“You could draw comparisons to other companies (BMW Motorrad is one that comes to mind), but these embody and embrace customer obsession. To test this view, I conducted an informal and asked poll: “Would you buy another [insert current motorcycle manufacturer here] and why/why not“The results? Ducati and Harley-Davidson riders are more likely to buy another ‘Duke’ or ‘Hog’ than say a rider who is only interested in maximum horsepower. I will point out that almost all the major players were represented (minus the MV Augustas and Benellis of the world. Aprilia, KTM, etc.) held their own despite their reduced marketing budgets I accept that these results may be skewed due to the small number of applicants and obviously does not reflect the shopping habits of the motorcycling community as a whole.What it does do however, is an insight into how important brand recognition is to a business.

Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special

Which brings us back to the original question:Is there still such a thing as motorcycle brand loyaltyI guess it depends on how you define loyalty. If you define it by “number of units sold to existing customers” and your numbers are off the charts, then yes, there is (and you have) brand loyalty. If however you define it as “the brand that has the cheapest product a customer would buy”, then no, there is no brand loyalty. operating costs are high and profit margins are slim Whether or not you drink one manufacturer’s Kool-Aid and spend your hard-earned cash on another motorcycle from the same manufacturer that you currently ride totally depends on you. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see which companies adapt their branding and marketing campaigns to an ever-changing atmosphere, in order to produce another model year of motorcycles and grow in the process.