Computers, components, food, appliances, lumber, toilet paper, disinfectants, cars, trucks and now motorcycles. Inspiration Friday: Bike Shortages doesn’t sound very inspiring does it? Maybe Total Motorcycle’s Inspiration Friday inspired our 350 million readers to buy too many bikes? What if TMW is responsible for too much motorcycle demand? Did we create a monster?
Used motorcycles are going up in price, new motorcycles that were flooding salesroom floors last year are gone. Spring riding season is compounding the problem. And the “you-know-what-it-is” from China (thanks China!) has made everyone’s lives a heck of a lot more difficult in more ways than you can shake a stick at!
Thankfully, Eric de Seynes- President & CEO of Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. steps up and tells it straight to motorcyclists, Houston, there is a supply chain problem. Yes, things are bad, yes, demand is too high for supply and supply chain breakdown is making it difficult. The “Ever Given” one of the largest container ships in the world (that happens to be from China) getting stuck in the Suez Canal with thousands of backlogged ships didn’t help matters either. But factory, through logistics and sales teams, are working hard to minimize the impact at Yamaha and no doubt at Harley-Davidson, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, BMW and many other manufactures as well are facing the same shortages and doing the same too. So we are not alone.
In the meantime, don’t upgrade your motorcycle if you don’t need to, don’t buy a 3rd or 4th bike when you have a good bike already to “wait it out”. Yes, Total Motorcycle is saying “Don’t buy a motorcycle unless you really need to” as this will help not only the shortage recover faster, but also new riders and those without bikes get into our sport. And shame on those who are flipping bikes, price gouging and taking advantage of the situation crisis! This crisis has personally shown that there are many great people out there, USA
Europe
but sadly an equal greedy number to seemingly are willing to take advantage of others. Please be considerate and be on the right side of the equation. God, Karma or even your mom will reward you for it.
While you wait it out, it’s fine to look, drool and prepare for your next bike purchase though. Many new 2021’s and 2022’s have been released this week!
Total Motorcycle would like to thank Yamaha Motorcycles and Eric de Seyne for inspiring us to bring you this week’s Inspiration Friday: Bike Shortages! Each week we bring you another Inspiring Motorcycle story to inspire you to get out and ride! Thank you for your support for visiting us and supporting us at Patreon for just $1 a month.
Without further ado, here is Eric de Seynes- President & CEO of Yamaha Motor Europe N.V…
Yamaha Motorcycle Shortage
Dear Customers, dear Yamaha dealers,
Having endured a difficult 2020 year, we thought that the most complicated part of the crisis was now behind us, both from a public health perspective and that of business.
The initial outlook for 2021 was and is remaining positive. Demand has been recovering strongly since last summer, supported by a strong and committed dealer network, with many new products expected to be delivered.
Unfortunately, this is not really the case now that we are getting into 2021 season, as the long-term effects of the Crisis on the supply chain are becoming clear, and these effects are making it difficult to fulfil our key duty of making enough products available to you through our extensive dealer network.
For the last ten months, the availability of raw materials has become an issue in many areas, such as the semi-conductors required in the manufacturing of our smart keys, ABS braking system, ECU, etc. Shipping goods overseas was also problematical due to the very high demand for many categories of manufactured products, but these issues have been made bigger right at the start of the season by the unexpected crisis in the Suez Canal, involving the container ship the “Ever Given”, which was transporting several thousands of Yamaha products and components.
Everybody here at Yamaha, from procurement to factory, through logistics and sales teams, are working hard to minimise the impact and to ensure that all available products are delivered. At the same time, we are also trying to provide the most accurate information on availability to our dealer network around Europe, in what was and is remaining a very unpredictable situation.
However, and fortunately, the situation will improve in the coming days , weeks and months. Your patience is appreciated, and we are confident that this patience will be rewarded with the great experience your new bike, scooter, outboard engine, WaveRunner or any other Yamaha product you have chosen will offer to you.
In the meantime, while everyone here at Yamaha is working hard to resolve all of the problems created by the Crisis, and also to increase rapidly the number of our total deliveries, we understand that the wait for products to be delivered can be frustrating, and for that we are very sorry. Therefore we sincerely hope you will accept our apology for any delay.
We sincerely hope that you will be able to “rev your heart” with your new machine very soon..
See you soon and thank you again for your patience.
Carmakers competing for chips
Ford Motor Co (F.N) on Wednesday outlined another series of plant shutdowns due to the global semiconductor chip shortage, with five facilities in the United States and one in Turkey affected.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker did not outline how many vehicles would be lost in the latest actions, and reiterated it intends to provide an update on the financial impact of the chip shortage with its quarterly earnings on April 28, suggesting the hit could be bigger than initially forecast.
Ford said in March it expected the semiconductor shortage to cost between $1 billion and $2.5 billion. While the company has prioritized chips for its highest-profit vehicles, it has been forced at times to idle production of its top-selling F-150 full-size pickup, and it has parked some of those trucks for final assembly later when enough chips are in hand.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based company this month announced production cuts during the weeks of April 19 and 26 at plants in Chicago, Flat Rock, Michigan, and Kansas City, as well as implementing a reduced schedule at its Ohio Assembly Plant, the latest in a string of chip-related curtailments.
It also set downtime for its Louisville, Kentucky, truck plant the weeks of April 26 and May 3, and its van plant in Golcuk, Turkey, from May 8 to May 31. However, Ford hopes to offset some of the losses in Turkey by pulling forward downtime scheduled later in the year.
Semiconductors are used extensively in cars, including to monitor engine performance, manage steering or automatic windows, and in sensors used in parking and entertainment systems.
Ford said in addition to the chip shortage, other factors driving the shutdowns included the previously reported fire at Renesas Electronics Corp’s (6723.T) chip-making factory in Japan and prior severe winter storms in Texas.
Industry research firm AutoForecast Solutions estimated lost production of almost 408,000 vehicles for Ford due to the shortage, with Wednesday’s actions accounting for more than 91,300 of that total.
Also on Wednesday, Japan’s Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) announced downtime in April for its plants in Smyrna, Tennessee; Canton, Mississippi, and Aguascalientes, Mexico, due to the shortage.
Japan’s Honda Motor Co (7267.T) said it may cut production at some of its North American plants the week of April 19 due to the chip shortage and other factors, calling the situation “fluid.” German automaker Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) idled production of its Tiguan crossover vehicle at its Puebla, Mexico, plant on Wednesday and Thursday.
Industry officials have previously said the shortage would be worse in the second quarter than the first. Ford’s larger U.S. rival, General Motors Co (GM.N), previously said it expected the financial impact of the chip shortage to shave as much as $2 billion from profit.
It was not clear if chip supplies will recover in the third quarter and whether automakers can make up all the lost production later this year.
Many North American automakers canceled chip orders after plants were shut for two months during the Crisis last year, while demand surged from the consumer electronics industry as people worked from home and played video games.
That has now left carmakers competing for chips.
(Thanks to https://www.reuters.com/ for the above article)
