Four dollars per gallon of gas is just not enough to convince most manufacturers to bring high mpg models to the United States. Looking at rumors, and even actual introductions, of 2009 models shows the same old pattern . . . many new models intended as high mpg commuters are “Europe only”.
While the U.S. may never evolve into the same two-wheel market as Europe, it will be interesting to see whether any of the models already existing for the European market are brought to the U.S. for 2009 for the low cost commuter niche. For many of these bikes, it is just a matter of qualifying them for sale in the U.S. With European emissions standards now quite strict, this wouldn’t seem to be too difficult in many instances.
