Harley-Davidson Shares Slide as Finance Boss Announces Exit

Harley issued a statement saying that Vice President, Treasurer David Viney will serve as interim CFO after Goetter’s departure on April 28.

Shares of the company were down 2.8% in extended trading after falling more than 6% on Wednesday.

Goetter was appointed CFO in September 2020 and played an integral role in Harley’s restructuring plan, called “Rewire,” to phase out less popular bike models and simplify its business strategy by catering to an older customer base. [...]

After cutting hundreds of jobs in 2020, Harley has either beaten or met Wall Street earnings forecasts in recent years, while navigating high inflation and supply chain constraints. The company benefited from strong demand for leisure purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Volkswagen’s off-road brand Scout Motors studied 74 different parcels of land across the U.S. last summer as it hunted for a place to build a $2 billion assembly plant.

It quickly eliminated almost all of them. In one case, they learned it would take six years to build a needed rail link. Others lacked access to clean power - crucial for a project for “green” electric vehicles. Some did not offer enough nearby skilled labor.

“We were hitting a deadline,” said Scott Keogh, Scout’s CEO, so they settled for a parcel in South Carolina that has all their desired features but is a bit smaller than they initially wanted - 1,600 instead of 2,000 acres.

Scout’s scramble highlights a challenge facing dozens of global manufacturers. Fueled by a combination of hefty government incentives, a transition to new transportation and energy technologies, and national security concerns about relying on distant suppliers, especially in China, there’s a factory-building boom taking place across the U.S.

But all that new construction has a real estate problem. More specifically, a “megasite” problem. While the U.S. has plentiful land, there are not that many places to quickly plunk a billion-dollar-plus factory.

The VW Scout plant, for instance, is situated in clear view of a major interstate highway connecting South Carolina’s coastal regions to the upper Midwest. That means putting the Scout name, being revived by VW after four decades of dormancy, in sight of tens of thousands of passing motorists a day.

“We have a lot of people who are coming from the north or from the Midwest down that highway that would drive right by that facility as they go to the beaches of South Carolina and Georgia and Florida,” said Harry Lightsey III, South Carolina’s secretary of commerce. “That was all important.”

Battery-electric trucks are already making an impact on the road, with Volvo, Daimler Truck and Volkswagen’s Traton offering different-size models to logistics clients. DHL has put several of Volvo’s e-trucks to work on London streets. Germany’s DB Schenker in January ordered 100 electric trucks from Traton’s MAN brand and has an agreement with Sweden’s Volta Trucks for some 1,500 e-rigs. Danish shipping company Maersk last year ordered 300 vehicles from Swedish startup Einride for its US warehousing, distribution and transportation business. [...]

But don’t count out fuel cell trucks just yet. Their drivetrains convert hydrogen into electricity that then powers the motor, emitting only water vapor. A fuel cell powertrain weighs less, allowing the vehicles to drive longer distances with greater loads and shorter refueling stops.

While Volvo has six battery-electric trucks on offer and sold more than 4,300 of these vehicles since 2019, it’s also pursuing fuel cells. The company last year started testing hydrogen trucks with 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of range that can be refueled in 15 minutes. Daimler Truck has done similar trials the last few years.