A snapshot of motorcycle and ATV industry share performance across key manufacturers and major global markets at the trading week closure on Friday 1 August 2025. BDN financial editor Roger Willis reports.
USA — TRUMP GOES INTO ATTACK MODE AGAIN
No sooner had most of Trump’s tariff negotiation settlements looked like achieving relatively equitable outcomes than he unleashed a torrent of fresh assaults worldwide. Governments and investors everywhere were left aghast, as New York market indices plunged in response. The blue-chip S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average had sunk to respective 2.4% and 2.9% losses by Friday’s closure. S&P’s MidCap 400 finished 3.5% down and the NASDAQ Composite dropped by 2.2%.
Some of his aggression was purely political rather than motivated by economic issues. Most outrageous was Washington imposing a sudden 50% tariff levy on Brazil, after the US had actually run a $7.4bn surplus in its $92bn total goods trade with Brazil last year. And when services were added, the US surplus had been $28.6bn higher.
On motorcycling home turf, the big shock in Q2 reports came from Harley-Davidson, which sold off a big slice of its HDFS consumer credit and dealer inventory action to major-league private equity investors KKR and PIMCO. This “strategic partnership” transaction aims to unlock $1.25bn in cash and reduce debt by $450m. In parallel, however, it revealed a 15% slump in Q2 retail Harley motorcycle sales and 65% decline in LiveWire electric sales.
When the results were annouced, Harley’s share price initially spiked upwards to $27.96, thanks to the KKR/PIMCO news, before falling back to close on a 2.2% loss. LiveWire shares plummeted in value by 23.6%.
| Currency: dollar | Price | Week | Month |
| Harley-Davidson | 24.06 | -2.2% | -5.8% |
| Polaris Industries | 49.57 | -1.3% | +6.7% |
| Niu Technologies | 3.51 | -9.3% | +4.5% |
| LiveWire | 3.23 | -23.6% | -27.6% |
EUROPE — DEAL ALMOST DONE
The EU-US trade deal approached fruition after a face-to-face meeting between EC supremo Ursula von der Leyen and Trump on one of his Scottish golf courses. Most of the European automotive giants are likely to get away with 15% tariffs on most exports to the US. (But BMW will do better by actually exporting around half of the production from its big US car plant in South Carolina). Immediately, though, nervous eurozone investors hammered automotive share prices. In Frankfurt, the key Dax Xetra stock index fell by 3.3% and Milan’s FTSE MIB closed 1.9% down. The Wiener Börse ATX in Austria dropped by 2.6% and KTM parent Pierer Mobility took a spanking, as did Piaggio in Italy.
Not so lucky are exporters to the US of steel and other metals, who may face a 50% tariff worst-case scenario. And the US is set to hit imports of EU wine and spirits with 15% tariffs. Last year, the EU exported €8.9bn worth of alcoholic beverages to the US, 30% of its total booze exports.
| Currency: euro | Price | Week | Month |
| BMW | 82.10 | -7.8% | +5.5% |
| Volkswagen | 91.35 | -10.9% | -1.1% |
| Pierer Mobility | 16.70 | -8.6% | -5.3% |
| Piaggio Group | 1.89 | -6% | -3.6% |
JAPAN — SMALL SIGH OF RELIEF
Tokyo and Osaka’s Nikkei 225 market index dropped back from the previous week’s 4.1% surge to fall by 1.6%, as Japanese big business read the small print of a deeply dysfunctional deal so hurriedly signed by their government. At least the big indigenous automotive and motorcycle manufacturing players are relatively happy with their 15% tariff framework.
| Currency: yen | Price | Week | Month |
| Honda | 1577 | -2.7% | +8% |
| Yamaha | 1110 | -0.6% | +2.4% |
| Suzuki | 1689.5 | +2.1% | +1.9% |
| Kawasaki | 11195 | +3.1% | +10.7% |
INDIA — TRUMP’S FERTILISER HITS THE FAN
New Delhi proved to be a primary target for Trump’s latest tariff foray. The US president castigated India for among the highest tariffs in the world and “the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country”. He also ranted about the fact that India has always bought a vast majority of its military equipment from Russia and acquired most of its oil on a sweetheart basis from Moscow. Currently, Trump is menacing the Indians with 25% tariffs and a further unspecified penalty. Rather foolishly, the Indian government replied that it had no plans to stop buying oil from the Russians…
| Currency: rupee | Price | Week | Month |
| Hero MotoCorp | 4309.00 | +1.9% | -0.8% |
| Bajaj Auto | 8044.50 | -0.4% | -4.6% |
| TVS Motor | 2858.20 | -3% | -0.8% |
| Eicher Motors | 5528.00 | +1.7% | -1.8% |
| Mahindra | 3165.00 | -2.5% | -0.1% |
CHINA — SILENCE IS GOLDEN
Against the background of Trump’s second-wave attack on all and sundry, we are told that negotiations between China and the US are proceeding at pace, and are approaching a satisfactory resolution. No details beyond that are available.
At the same time, it’s impossible to ignore Shanghai’s SSE Composite and the CSI 300 Shanghai/Shenzhen market indices both turned negative in the past week, respectvely by 1% and 1.8%. No reason was visible. Furthermore, the ten listed Chinese motorcycle producers we track all incurred share price losses in the past week. Again, no reason was visible. Somebody is being decidedly inscrutable, and it may not be the Chinese.
| Currency: yuan | Price | Week | Month |
| Qianjiang | 16.04 | -2.5% | -1.3% |
| Zongshen | 23.03 | -2.5% | +0.4% |
| Sundiro | 4.52 | -5.8% | +2% |
| CETC (Jialing) | 12.35 | -2.5% | +0.2% |
| Qianli (Lifan) | 8.32 | -1.9% | N/A |
| Loncin | 12.16 | -1.7% | -9.1% |
| Linhai | 11.17 | -1.4% | +3.4% |
| Guangzhou Auto Group | 7.54 | -2.8% | +0.3% |
| CFMoto | 219.10 | -3.5% | -7.9% |
| Xinri E-Vehicle | 12.50 | -0.4% | +0.4% |