Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/148632
m ers till ith of ng hs. deore t N KY www.PowersportsBusiness.com news Powersports Business • August 12, 2013 • 5 MIC acts to reduce impactful CARB off-road regs Late last month, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted regulations to control evaporative emissions from off-highway recreational vehicles (OHRVs), including offhighway motorcycles, ATVs and side-by-sides. For the past seven years while these regulations were being developed, the MIC worked closely with CARB to ensure the regulations would not severely limit product availability or performance or significantly increase the cost to buyers. MIC's persistence resulted in significantly less stringent standards and test procedures, a multi-year extension of the implementation and phase-in period, the removal of refueling emission controls for most vehicles, improvements to the emissions inventory model, and other important revisions to CARB's initial proposal. In mid-July, MIC convinced CARB to walk away from an eleventh-hour proposal to consider evaporative controls at this time on Red Sticker OHRVs — vehicles that are not required to comply with exhaust emission standards. Instead, CARB will hold industry workshops in the coming months to explore whether the Red Sticker program needs to be revisited. "The MIC OE Technical Committee has worked diligently to find solutions that will further improve California air quality, while at the same time protecting off-highway recre- ation for the State's enthusiasts," said MIC vice president Pamela Amette. "California's everchanging and increasingly stringent regulations require an ongoing, intense effort by committee members to fight to prevent unintended consequences of well-meaning but ill-advised proposals, and those efforts have made a significant impact today." The reduction in OHRV sales due to the Great Recession makes complying with the newly adopted regulation by 2022 economically infeasible for certain models. The regulation would, in-effect, force the removal of these models from the California market. To address this issue, the MIC requested a two-year delay in the regulation's implementation during the July 25 Board meeting in Sacramento, Calif. The Board denied MIC's request, but committed to reviewing the state of the market in the coming years. The proposed regulations, to be phased in from 2018-2021, establish emission standards to reduce evaporative emissions produced by OHRVs due to permeation of gasoline through plastic tanks and rubber fuel lines, tank venting, liquid leakage and spillage. To meet the new regulations, vehicles will need to be equipped with activated carbon canisters or a pressure relief valve on the vent of the fuel tank. PSB NPA offering $3 million in advanced payments National Powersport Auctions (NPA) has launched its the new NPA Advanced Value Payment (AVP) program. In honor of the program's recent launch, NPA is offering $3 million (per dealer limits apply) through the end of August to NPA dealers who consign more than $20,000 in inventory. During this time, NPA is waiving the fee normally associated with the AVP program. The AVP program is designed for dealers consigning their used inventory with NPA to receive timely capital to purchase additional powersports so they can increase their inventory turn and profit. With NPA's AVP program, dealers will be able to receive up to 75 percent of the vehicle's value within days of the vehicle arriving at one of NPA's four locations. When the vehicle sells at the NPA Auction, the dealer receives the remainder of the proceeds from the sale. All types of powersports are eligible for NPA's AVP program, including but not limited to: motorcycles, ATVs, side-bysides, PWC, boats, and RVs. "As dealers increase their off-the-street purchases and further embrace the advantages of taking trade-ins, access to capital becomes critically important," said John Roshala, NPA's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "NPA recognized the assistance we could provide to our dealers by giving them the capital to invest back into their dealership. At NPA, we call it Pre-owned Velocity and we designed the program to do just that." When NPA initially rolled out the program as a soft launch to a few of their strong consignors, they ended up wiring over $500,000 to a handful of dealerships. "By having the easy access to capital through the NPA AVP program, we have quickly increased our inventory turn and profit. The NPA AVP program is a very effective tool that helps us grow our dealership," said Mark Huff of Powerfun in Tavares, Fla. "We are pleased with the results we are seeing thus far, and are excited to be offering this unique program to all our dealers," Roshala added. "Nationally, sales of preowned powersports outpace sales of new powersports, yet only 25 percent of used product currently sells through a dealership. There is a tremendous opportunity for dealers in pre-owned and with NPA's AVP program, they can have the access to capital to take advantage of that opportunity." PSB P01x07-PSB10-News.indd 5 7/31/13 2:41 PM