Californian regulators have voted to ban the sale of new gas-powered generators, starting in 2028.
The news comes as part of a larger crackdown on “off-road small-displacement” motors, which includes lawnmowers and leaf blowers, which will become outlawed starting in 2024.
Gas generator have their provisions, which give them an extra four-year reprieve, and none of this legislation outlaws the use of currently owned equipment.
COMOTO the parent company to RevZilla, Cycle Gear, J&P Cycles has just settled a dispute with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the alleged selling of non-exempted add-on or modified motorcycle parts in California.
In total, COMOTO will pay $1,937,500 to resolve the alleged violations, in a mixture of fines to CARB and payments for environmental projects that benefit the community.
For our friends across the pond, this year and next were to be critical years for the motorcycle industry, as the first stage of the Euro 5 homologation requirements was to come online – first in 2020 for brand new motorcycle models, and then in 2021 for existing motorcycle models.
This first stage of the Euro 5 requirement for motorcycles affects primarily the noise emissions from the vehicle, and it will be several years before motorcycles sold in Europe will have to adhere to the full Euro 5 package, which is quite stringent.
The delay on the full Euro 5 implementation comes over concerns about the costs and R&D associated with meeting emission targets, but even this first stage is proving to be difficult for OEMs to implement, and the reason for that is because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Trump administration is about to take on the California Air Resources Board (CARB) in a battle for the rights to set emission standards.
The first blows in this showdown have already begun, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) sending a letter to the CARB saying that the organization had violated federal law by making an agreement with several automobile manufacturers on higher emission standards
The Trump administration doesn’t seem to end things there though, with the expectation the President will announce plans as early as today to do away with California’s emissions waiver from the Clean Air Act.
While it seems like politics as usual and centered around the auto industry, such a move will have huge implications for motorcycle manufacturers.
Episode 83 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast is out, and in it we talk mostly about Harley-Davidson’s big fat new bike road map announcement.
Before we get to that though, we talk some news: Triumph North America losing its COO, MV Agusta’s new Moto2 race bike, Aprilia’s rumored parallel-twin sport bike, and emission concerns in Europe & Japan, as well as California.
The conversation then turns to news from World Ducati Week 2018, as well as a recap from the Suzuka 8-Hours endurance race in Japan.
From there, we talk about Harley-Davidson – its ADV bike, its streetfighter, its custom model, and its electric lineup. We also talk about the company’s business plan going forward, and what we see in Harley-Davidson’s future.
There is a lot of ground to cover in this show, but thankfully we had plenty of caffeine to help us through it. Enjoy!
You can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well.
We hope you will join the conversation, and leave us some audio comments at our new email address: twoenthusiasts@gmail.com.
The Japanese automotive industry is being rocked by an emissions and fuel efficiency scandal right now, and it involves the Yamaha Motor Company motorcycle division as well.
All told, five of the eight automotive companies in Japan have been found incorrectly testing and reporting the emissions and fuel mileage of their vehicles.
The scandal started in 2016 with Mitsubishi, which lead to findings last year where Nissan and Subaru were found manipulating the results of their emission results. These findings then caused the Japanese government to require other automotive companies in Japan to check their testing operations.
Upon this internal review, Mazda and Suzuki found and reported that their cars had been improperly tested, with Yamaha finding similar results with its motorcycle standards testing.
Elected on a platform to do away with regulatory interference, especially Obama-era fuel economy targets, the Trump Administration is now looking to end California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act.
Ending the waiver effectively means that the United States would finally have a unified set of regulations for vehicles emissions and fuel efficiency standards, as California (through the California Air Resources Board) often sets higher requirements, through its Clean Air Act waiver.
Looking to gut the regulatory force of CARB, this news would also mean that vehicle makers would have lower targets to hit for gas mileage efficiency (37mpg instead of 46.8mpg), which in turn means that brands would have to sell fewer electric vehicles as well.
Lastly, under the proposed changes, vehicle emission standards would freeze at the planned 2020 levels, until the year 2026.
As of yesterday, JEFTA is finally law in Europe and Japan, and the trade agreement is a big deal for both parties involved, as well as motorcyclists.
What? You haven’t heard of the Japan Europe Free Trade Agreement (JEFTA)? For our European readers, it is a critical piece of legislation, as this treaty of trade is set to make Japanese motorcycles a bit cheaper in Europe.
Agreeing to a schedule of tariff reductions, JEFTA achieves two goals that affect the motorcycle industry. First, it reduces the modest taxation of Japanese motorcycles, mopeds, scooters, and parts into the European Union.
Second, JEFTA helps align the European and Japanese emission standards for vehicles, thus unifying both countries under a single emission criteria for vehicles.
If you go to Triumph’s North American website, you will notice that the Daytona 675 is missing from the lineup. Similarly, the three-cylinder supersport machine is nowhere to be found on the Triumph Motorcycles UK site.
And even an intrepid look at Triumph Japan, Triumph India, and Triumph Brazil websites gives no joy, despite the latter’s still having the now defunct Tiger 1050 model. So what’s the beans?
The answer of course is the Euro4 homologation standard, which came into play for the 2016 model year, and has been killing motorcycle models ever since.
Bloomberg is reporting that California Governor Jerry Brown is considering ways to ban the sale of vehicles that use internal combustion engines – a move that could have massive implications not only for vehicle sales, the environment, but potentially the motorcycle industry as well.
Still in the early days of consideration, the news comes from remarks made by Mary Nichols, who is the Chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and her remarks and relaying of thought from Gov. Brown don’t make it clear if the ban would apply only to passenger vehicles, or if it would include modes of transportation like trucks, commercial vehicles, and motorcycles.
However, the move mimics similar bans that we have already seen in places like China, and follows a trend that is catching on in European countries too, with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and The Netherlands all recently announcing similar efforts and goals to block the sale of internal combustion vehicles in the coming decades.
Remember last year when Harley-Davidson had a Brinks truck dropped on them, for performance tuner kits that failed to comply with EPA emission regulations for street motorcycles?
At the time, the government was looking for $12 million in cash for penalties, as well as another $3 million in emissions mitigation, in the form of Harley-Davidson paying to retrofit or replace wood-burning appliances with cleaner stoves.
Now, an article from Reuters is reporting that Harley-Davidson won’t have to spend that $3 million dollars, as the Department of Justice (DOJ) is expected to drop the penalty.