HD is not about to start building bikes in Thailand just to ship them back here. There’s no economy in that. The OP is conflating two separate items, adding 2+2 and coming up with 5. The Thai plant is intended to supply the SE Asia market, which is taking off (they already have a plant in India, where their bikes are becoming more and more popular).
As noted upthread, the two model lines built by the plant being shuttered are both going away, and there’s no corresponding upswing in some other model that might take over that production capacity.
> HD is not about to start building bikes in Thailand just to ship them back here. There’s no economy in that. <
A couple of years ago I was eating a can of brand-name peaches. Out of curiosity, I glanced at the label. It said “Product of USA, packed in Thailand”.
That made no sense at all. So I called the questions/comments number on the label. Yep...the peaches were grown in the USA, shipped to Thailand for canning, then shipped back to the USA for sale.