Letter to the Editor

Just my opinion……. Is the Internal Combustion engine / Electric vehicle war already over?

Did we lose the War? Sadly, I think we did. Was the global enemy just too big and powerful? Yes.

Did we as motorcyclist’s, particularly in the USA and Europe, unite to fight the global agenda? Not really, just the fractional yet passionate mega minority.

Are gasoline-loving motorcyclists, and other international combustion engine vehicle owners in general, everywhere being slowly, but surely phased out of the equation, even existence? The answer in my humble opinion is yes. The petroleum war is front page news and has been for a long time now. We can thank the climate change green energy mega faction for this.

Is ABATE of Wisconsin, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation as rights organizations fighting a fruitless battle now that has already been decided by our government, the governments of the world, and the vehicle industry as a whole? Again, I believe the answer is yes.

Are lawmakers that we meet with on this issue in Madison and Washington DC just placating us for photo ops and votes? Are we fooling ourselves and trying to hang on to the past, while the future is slowly crushing us all into dust?

Many of you are aware of the 2035 Electric vehicle/ anti gasoline, internal combustion engine agenda that is being pushed and fully embraced By Europe, Canada, California, and other US states. The Automotive/ and motorcycle industry is already planning to eliminate their entire gas-powered vehicle lines by 2035 to be replaced with electric vehicles. Harley Davidson has introduced EV bikes, Kawasaki is introducing ten EV, hybrid, and alternate fuel models in 2025, and all other makers will follow suit or are already slowly replacing their gas models with other technologies.

We had a long window to fight this, but that window has now been closed and locked up tight.

The very high majority of the roughly nine million motorcyclists in the USA either decided they just didn’t care, agreed with the war on gasoline-powered vehicles, were too busy having fun to worry about it, or thought they were powerless to stop the governments Green agenda. In any event, the industry has now decided the outcome for us. They are phasing out gas-powered engines over the next decade. The inaction of the American Motorcycling community at large sent a clear message to the industry and the Government. That message was that only a tiny fraction cared, the vast majority didn’t care. The Industry/Govt saw no downside and went ahead. While we ABATE/MRF members gave a crap, we make up an insignificant fraction of Motorcyclists here in America. Strength in numbers win was battles and wars…

I know many of you reading this may see me as a gloom and doom defeatist, capitulating, and throwing in the towel. That was not the point of this letter. The point is maybe we need to be realists, bitterly distasteful as it may be. Has the future in regard to the internal combustion engine and its demise already been decided for us? The big picture I am seeing shows me yes, it has. You may disagree and that is your right.

Now we need to refocus all our energies on the other monsters in the room, the Autonomous vehicle wave of the future, the long-term spare parts aftermarket industry, and Gasoline. The petroleum industry will eventually just stop refining it altogether once the internal combustion engine has been deleted by the vehicle industry. No money to be made by them in the Niche market.

Once the EV vehicles take over, spare parts will begin to vanish from websites everywhere, and gasoline availability or the total lack of gasoline available most assuredly will follow. The gas station will go the way of the internal combustion engine too. The future is bleak.

Bronson Smith