Warming up
The ‘J’ of July is in the month and that means that the ‘K’ of cucumber also frequently appears in the (motor) news. Everyone seems to be busy with the holiday and the (news) swing is temporarily gone. Or is this year an exception to that unwritten rule?
Well, it does seem that way to be honest. July also means that the first two quarters of the year are over and where you used to be able to put your money on BMW as temporary market leader, Yamaha was that last year and this year it is – surprisingly – Kawasaki that dives into the summer recess as the leader of the list. The Greens are secretly doing very well with a balanced model range, where this year a completely renewed 500 palette has been added at the bottom and Kawasaki is the first major manufacturer to also put two hybrids on the market.
And those hybrids bridge the gap to a second remarkable piece of news in the silly season. This concerns a ruling by the Supreme Court regarding the cancellation of the purchase of an electric Jaguar I-PACE due to the range lagging far behind the WLTP value specified by the manufacturer. The range of electric vehicles has always been a topic of discussion, but in the above-mentioned case the Jaguar only achieved 300 kilometres, while 480 kilometres had been specified upon sale. The Supreme Court then ruled that a deviation of 35% is sufficient to speak of non-conformity and the purchase can be cancelled. On the one hand, this means that as a consumer you should not blindly focus on the WLTP value, which is still a bit of a laboratory value, but on the other hand, a small bomb with precedent effect has been placed under the specified range of electric cars and also motorcycles. In any case, it will make manufacturers think.
Back to that ‘J’ of July. That of course also means vacation. I myself have already had a taste of that wonderful vacation feeling during a motorcycle trip to the BMW Motorrad Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. A lot of highway kilometers to hurry up unfortunately, but the last part through the Austrian Plansee to avoid the always overcrowded Fernpass, was a holiday shot in the bull’s eye and made up for a lot of traffic jam misery. Playfully meandering along a rock face on the left and bright blue water on the right, you drive back into Germany towards Garmisch-Partenkirchen almost without realizing it. A must if Austria or Italy are your holiday destination. After all, via Garmisch you can easily cross back through the country towards Innsbruck and you have avoided the Fernpass stress with a few relaxing extra kilometers.
What I always find amazing about a ‘brand festival’ like the BMW Motorrad Days is the brand madness of motorcyclists, because once again you saw license plates from all over Europe in the full parking lots, from Scandinavia to Spain and from Hungary to Great Britain. If European leaders want to learn something about fraternization, they should spend a few days looking around at such a large motorcycle festival. They must like a beer, because Weizen in a one-liter mug was the standard size ‘beer’ at the BMW Motorrad Days.
Speaking of beer: we’re also grabbing a holiday beer, because there’s number 15 on the cover of this MotoPlus and that means that we’re also going to take a few weeks off to fill up the tank for the second half of the year. That also means that MotoPlus 16 will be on the doormat and in the shops a few weeks later, namely on Friday 23 August. Have a nice holiday in advance and keep the polished side up!
Jeroen Hidding – Editor-in-Chief MotoPlus
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