Probably yet another hopeful enthusiast
Hardly. TVS has a turnover of over 6.5billion and employs 39000 people.
https://www.visordown.com/news/industry ... tvs-motors

Dogsbody wrote: ↑Sat Jul 30, 2022 6:10 am Probably yet another hopeful enthusiast
Hardly. TVS has a turnover of over 6.5billion and employs 39000 people.
https://www.visordown.com/news/industry ... tvs-motors

100 million, offset against profits elsewhere, is probably a drop in the ocean then. If it means a factory on the scale of Triumph Hinckley then they could at last enjoy some success, anything less is just a hobby.

"The Motor Bike Show" & Henry Cole on TV have ridden the new production Norton's & reckons they are brilliant. Chalk & cheese compared to the flakey previous models. Engines have been completely revamped. Their factory is impressive too. All round they are making much superior machines.

Data wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 4:51 am "The Motor Bike Show" & Henry Cole on TV have ridden the new production Norton's & reckons they are brilliant. Chalk & cheese compared to the flakey previous models. Engines have been completely revamped. Their factory is impressive too. All round they are making much superior machines.

Henry Cole's programs make very enjoyable watching for us ancients but I set no store by his opinions about the bikes he rides, particularly the ridiculously expensive ones! I don't know whether Norton now have the ambition to become a mainstream brand. Triumph have miraculously achieved it but it was against the odds and not necessarily a permanently viable status. If I was planning future investment in the superbike sector I would be looking at hydrogen as the clean fuel of choice simply because electric vehicles are no more exciting than washing machines and I don't see much appeal for well healed lovers of historic brands.

roadster wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 3:46 am

Data wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 4:51 am "The Motor Bike Show" & Henry Cole on TV have ridden the new production Norton's & reckons they are brilliant. Chalk & cheese compared to the flakey previous models. Engines have been completely revamped. Their factory is impressive too. All round they are making much superior machines.

Henry Cole's programs make very enjoyable watching for us ancients but I set no store by his opinions about the bikes he rides, particularly the ridiculously expensive ones! I don't know whether Norton now have the ambition to become a mainstream brand. Triumph have miraculously achieved it but it was against the odds and not necessarily a permanently viable status. If I was planning future investment in the superbike sector I would be looking at hydrogen as the clean fuel of choice simply because electric vehicles are no more exciting than washing machines and I don't see much appeal for well healed lovers of historic brands.

Well, certainly EV cars are exciting (you'll know this if you've driven one) & are fast taking over from ice cars. Last year 13% of all new cars were ev's in the UK. Electric bikes will eventually follow suit. This is because of all the new battery technology that goes into production this year. Both range & charge times will massively improve. But you won't actually see them in bikes or cars for a year or two.

Hydrogen on the other hand isn't really anywhere on the horizon in spite of some optimistic YouTube videos & highly optimistic statements from one or two car manufacturers in far eastern countries. It is far too dirty a fuel to produce at the moment & we mustn't forget hydrogen burned in ice engines produces dangerous 'N' gases & is between 20 & 25% less efficient depending on the motor it is burned in. It's also incredibly costly & with no infrastructure currently in place to store or deliver it, let alone any vehicles to use it at scale. Garages cannot easily convert to hydrogen delivery either. It costs millions to even get the tanks in. Remember to that it is a very volatile fuel making it dangerous beyond petrol. It has to be stored under considerable pressure too! Even with all that it gradually disappears from the tanks it is stored in if not quickly used. It permeates through the walls of the tanks, even the very special storage tanks designed for it. Report after report is showing hydrogen to be a pipe dream. This includes a government report out last week showing use of hydrogen for jet aircraft is again a pipe dream that is decades & decades away & very inefficient in spite of Rolls Royce producing a new hydrogen jet engine. It will be years before it is viable but even then it will be shunned if used in ice engines. Only 1% of hydrogen is green at the moment & producing it in the amounts we need will take decades. The best way to produce it will be from either vast solar arrays or from nuclear energy. But it will be a vast challenge that even the most avid supporters of hydrogen acknowledge. On the other hand there are no such issues with delivering electrical energy. By comparison it's cheap, safe & available now.

Data wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 12:30 pm Well, certainly EV cars are exciting (you'll know this if you've driven one) & are fast taking over from ice cars. Last year 13% of all new cars were ev's in the UK. Electric bikes will eventually follow suit. This is because of all the new battery technology that goes into production this year. Both range & charge times will massively improve. But you won't actually see them in bikes or cars for a year or two.

I drive an electric car and its the second one I've owned. But I don't regard their extremely nippy performance as contributing particularly to driving excitement. My real point is that the wealthy individuals who buy prestige brand motorcycles won't look twice at anything not powered by a rorty IC engine, so in the long term Norton will have to completely change their product design and target a different market for large scale production.

Yes, of course everyone is having to change their long term product planning. Norton have already begun the electrification planning of there MC's. From the tour of there factory they seem to be concentrating on quality for everything they do. It's some factory too!

Noticed yesterday that the EU rather belatedly have fully confirmed the end of ice engines from 2035. For the EU they cannot do this any sooner as they are collectively not as far ahead with green energy as the UK.

Ok so it looks like Germany have failed to ratify the new EU laws relating to banning all ice engines from 2035. They won't do it. Other countries are looking at not obeying too. Lots of disagreement in typical EU fashion that we cannot afford. This drives a truck through the EU's plans to go transport carbon neutral on time. All quite predictable.