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BRIEFS
PSB reports that Heritage Harley-Davidson in Lisle , Illinois , will have closed down permanently by the end of June . Described as a " strategic decision " taken in conjunction with H-D corporate and other local dealers , the decision as made in order to " optimize " the local Illinois H-D market . Heritage H-D was owned by Michael Veracka ' s MOD Enterprises . The ' Chicagoland ' Windy City dealer group has agreed to honor all Heritage H- D gift cards , VIP services and assist in the completion of any outstanding service work and fulfilment of special orders .
Noting the time was right , Boneyard Harley-Davidson co-owners Marc Ingwersen and Jerry Carrillo sold their Winterville , North Carolina dealership to current GM Bobbie Krull and new partner Steven Towers . " Jerry and I had great success in Winterville , but felt it was the right time to focus on our Ohio dealerships ," says Ingwersen .
Boardroom trouble at RumbleOn Powersports has been rumbling on for some time , but may now have taken a decisive turn . Mark Tkach , cofounder of RideNow , which was bought by technology-based powersports platform operator RumbleOn , has been appointed interim CEO with RumbleOn and the Coulter-Tkach Group reaching a resolution to end their proxy contest . This follows the resignation of former CEO Marshall Chesrown . Steve Pully has been named Chairman of the Board . Tkach has over 40- years of powersports industry experience and oversaw RideNow ' s strategic growth from 1989 until it was acquired by RumbleOn in August 2021 .
European Union in boost for eFuel
By Ben Purvis
The rhetoric from the European Union over the future of internal combustion engines has started to change - opening the door to a future of eFuelpowered vehicles where previously there ' s been a single-minded focus on battery-electric vehicles . Although the EU has yet to legislate on a date for the end of ICE-powered motorcycle sales , there are rules in place that will see all carbon-emitting new cars removed from sale by 2035 . Previously , these rules have been interpreted to include a ban on eFuel vehicles , which use so-called ' drop-in '
' the combustion engine could get a stay of execution '
liquid hydrocarbon fuels to replace petrol or diesel . These fuels can be created from carbon dioxide harvested from the atmosphere and combined with ' green ' hydrogen , so they remove as much greenhouse gas from the atmosphere during their manufacture as they later emit when burnt . The result is that while an eFuel-powered ICE vehicle still emits carbon dioxide , its net impact on global warming is zero . It ' s already a route that ' s interesting the motorcycle industry , with MotoGP due to adopt a 40 % eFuel mix next year and shift to 100 % eFuel by 2027 , with F1 moving to eFuel in 2026 . The aviation industry is also a driving force behind the technology : it ' s not viable to create intercontinental airliners using zero-emissions electric or hydrogen fuel in the immediate future , and the power-to-weight and powerto-volume issues of those technologies are still seemingly insurmountable problems .
Meanwhile , eFuel arguably allows a switch to carbon-neutrality without changing the underlying technologies of combustion engines and jets , whether they ' re for road transport , shipping or aviation . There are still stumbling blocks , of course . Technologies to make large volumes of eFuel are still in the prototype stage , although there ' s a pilot plant in Chile , created by Porsche and Siemens Energy , that ' s pumping out 130,000 liters per year and intends to ramp up to 550 million liters per year by the end of the decade . The electrolysis to derive
' drop-in liquid hydrocarbon fuels '
hydrogen from water to create eFuel is relatively energy-intensive , but provided the plants use abundant solar , wave or wind power to achieve it , there ' s no environmental impact . Germany ' s government , a coalition of Greens , Social Democrats and the business-oriented Free Democratic Party , has been pushing for the EU to allow eFuel-powered combustion engines even after the planned 2035 cut-off for carbon-emitting vehicles .
The country ' s automotive industry is a clear reason for such interest , but it ' s a technology that could prove essential for motorcycling . Unlike cars , where there ' s abundant room for batteries and a few hundred kilos of extra weight goes almost unnoticed , motorcycles have no such luxury , and the challenge of building an electric bike that can match current expectations from combustion engine models in terms of performance , range , weight , handling and cost has so far proved impossible to meet . Finally , eFuels offer the tempting prospect that they could allow not only future vehicles to be environmentally friendly , but also allow existing combustion-engine machines to become carbon-neutral . If the fuels are brewed as exact drop-in replacements for petrol , they could allow the existing fleet to go green without the huge investment - both financial and environmental in terms of raw materials - needed for a wholesale shift to electric vehicles . Plus , the economic , social and environmental advantages of not having to completely overhaul established infrastructure is an often overlooked but huge additional benefit .
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