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Norton‘ Design & Licence’ deal with Zongshen
Norton Motorcycle and Chinese manufacturer Zongshen have entered into a 20 year Design and Licence agreement over an all new 650cc twin engine. Jointly engineered and developed by Norton and Ricardo for likely production under the‘ Zongshen’ or‘ Cyclone’ brands, the Euro 4 compliant engine has been specifically designed to the requirements of Zongshen, enabling the Chongqing, southcentral China based manufacturer to meet current and future emissions regulations. This is clearly an important deal for both businesses. For Zongshen it will enable them to fast track through an expensive and time-consuming development phase and allow them to continue their phenomenal growth. Although the value of the deal is to remain private, the initial consideration paid to Norton is described as being in the“ millions of dollars” with an ongoing royalty on each engine
Piaggio says it consolidated its European motorcycle and scooter market share position in the first half of 2017, with an overall market share of 14.8 %( the same as in the first half of 2016), and 26.1 % in the scooter sector( 26 % in the year-earlier period). The Group says it maintained a“ particularly strong presence on the North American scooter market, with a share of 19.1 %”, and that it is“ also committed to strengthening its position in the motorcycle market in North America.” Vespa saw worldwide sales grow by + 9.3 % from the first half of 2016, and strengthened its presence on the EMEA market, with net sales growth of + 16.4 %, and in Asia with net sales growth of + 11.1 %.“ Performance was also positive in high-wheel scooters, where the Group reported revenue growth at global level, largely thanks to the new Liberty and to the Beverly and Aprilia doing well in India, thanks to the Aprilia SR 150 sports scooter.” In motorcycle terms Piaggio saw sales produced. The agreement is for a 20-year term- last year Zongshen produced around 4 million engines. Norton CEO, Stuart Garner, commented:“ It’ s a great endorsement of our new 650cc engine platform.“ The commercialisation of our
growth for the Aprilia brand,“ generated in particular by the naked models of the Tuono family and the excellent response to the new Supersports model RSV4 1000, which achieved an increase of more than 20 % in part as a result of the strong return in terms of performance and
image from Aprilia ' s participation in the world MotoGP championship.“ In the second half of the year, Aprilia will also benefit from sales of the new Aprilia Shiver 900 and Dorsoduro 900, launched on the market in June 2017”. Revenue increased at Moto Guzzi,“ driven specifically by the California range and the V7 motorbikes, whose fiftieth anniversary this year has been
IP is a key area for Norton and we will be investing the substantial revenue received back into our skills, training and engineering capability.” Norton will continue to hand make all its own Norton engines in the UK at its Donington Hall factory.
Piaggio“ positive” first half
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marked with an ad hoc model”. In overall corporate terms, compared with the first half of 2016, Piaggio says their Group performance in the first half of 2017 was“ positive, with a strong improvement and a reduction in debt”. Group consolidated net sales in the first half of 2017 totalled 725.3 million euro, an improvement of + 2.7 % from 706.5 million euro.
The company says it sold 280,700 vehicles in total, of all kinds, worldwide, an increase of + 1.4 % from 276,700 in the year-earlier period. Sales growth in the EMEA and the Americas areas(+ 5.8 %) more than compensated for the decreases reported in India(-2.2 % due to slower sales of commercial vehicles). Of those, 202,100 were two-wheelers, up by + 11 % from 182,100 for the first half of 2016, generating net sales of 541.7 million euro, up + 6.8 %.