The article is absolutely right about why people by Harleys, it’s been proven with the Japanese where owning a hog is a status symbol in the land of high-end motorcycles. It’s all about the brand and perception, and HD will lose that.
Moreover they acted precipitously since anyone knows that Trump is using tariffs and threats of tariffs as a negotiating tool. And he has a habit of winning. Take away the tariff in a year and how smart does HD’s decision look? They could have held off 6 months or a year easily, and it’s entirely possible they will reverse this decision before any production even begins in Europe.
The EU is the most difficult, costly, inflexible place in the world for a manufacturing business. Decisions like this are not made overnight either, they’ve had this plan in the works for a long time and just found what they think is a convenient excuse to trigger it. HOG stock still hasn’t recovered.
The $2200 tariff per bike is 9% of the cost yet HD just got a 14% tax cut.
The tariffs went into effect on June 22 and HD announces the production move in their June 25 SEC report blaming it on the tariffs? The say it will take over nine months to implement the move. By then the tariffs could be off. Ironic to read the SEC report and HD outlining the risk of believing the “forward looking statements” included.