Its been a tough first half with the tightening of access to finance starting to bite, the uncertainty on the future of ATVs in Australia, declining consumer sentiment and the election all taking their toll. Overall the market slipped 11.4% to finish on 42,457 units sold.
Sales of road bikes took the biggest hit, declining 17.37% (to 15,668 units). KTM was the only brand to post a positive result +9.1% (72 units).
Dirt was down 5.9% (14,666 units) and ATVs dropped 13.9% to 9,638 units.
Scooters continued to grow (+18.8% / 394 units)
LAMS
15,668 Road bikes have been sold YTD. The FCAI report give visibility, at a model level, on 9,889 on these sales.
25 of the 60 road models reported on were LAMS road bikes. These 25 Models accounted for 5,453 of the 15,668 Road bikes sold YTD – roughly 1/3 of the market or 55% of the sales reported at a model level. The portion of the market made up of LAMs bikes is probably above 50%, especially if the non-reporting brands such as Royal Enfield, CF Moto etc are included.
Prestige / Euro brands
1,525 Euro brands were sold in Q2, a drop of 14% on Q2 2018. This was a slight recovery on Q1 where sales of euro brands dropped 22.5%
Overall 2,849 bikes have been sold YTD – a 18% decrease on same period 2018.
BMW was the best performer in the market dropping 211 units (15.4% YTD) and thereby increasing its share of the sales of euro brands to 41%.
Cruiser & Touring bikes
Sales of Harley continued their decline. YTD sales are down 381 units (-17.8%) in Q2 to end H1 on 1,436 units.
Indian also suffered a decline – down 28.7% to 323 units.
4 of the top 6 cruiser models are entry level LAMS bikes.
Scooters
The Uber eats / Deliveroo growth continues to effect sales of scooters with 2,485 units sold YTD, an 18.8% YOY growth.
The ADRESS has been fantastic for Suzuki growing 68% and accounting for over 90% of Suzuki scooter sales.
Similarly for Honda the NSC110 has doubled in volume to 496 units YTD and it now accounts for roughly half of all Honda Scooters sold.
These two models are cheap scooters. They retail for less than $3k and account for roughly 1/3 of the reported scooter market.
Lambretta, Peugeot, Kymco & SYM do not submit sales figures to the FCAI so the above is in only a partial picture of the market.
Dirt
Top line Dirt dosn’t look as hard hit as other parts of the market with sales down 5.9% YTD (to 14,666 units)
The top 10 fun bikes sold 4,435 units. These models represent 30% of total sales Vs 26% this time last year and mask the decline in dirt bike sales to a degree.
Excluding the top 10 kids bikes sales of dirt bikes are actually down 11% YOY.
Looking model by model very few full size models actually had increased sales on last year.
In trail bikes the only model of note was the new launched CRF250F which sold 392 units.
In Enduro the WR450F was up 8.2% YOY, The 300EXCF up 18.3% and the recently lanched CRF450L sold 134 units.
In MX The KX450F was up 13.3%, the 450CXF increase 18.2% and Yamahas YZ85/LW YZ65 both posted increases.
In total only 6 models out of the 30 full size modesl that were reported on posted an increase.
ATV
Q2 is traditionally the biggest selling Quarter of the year for this market with over a 1/3 of the annual sales happening between April and June.
The ATV market is down 13.9% for the year. 6,425 units were sold in Q2, 8% (560 units) down on Q2 2018.
Only 2 brands have improved this year. BRP increased sales by 1.9% to 1,333 units and the now enjoy market share of 14% (Vs 8% they at the same time 2015)
Kawasaki was the other brand to post growth up 2.4% to 728 units.
All other brands suffered double digit declines.
Some of this (particularly the Honda and Yamaha declines may be attributed to the uncertainty around the future of ATVs in Australia going forward). The drought and access to finance will also have played their part here too.
In the broader Ag equipment market sales of tractors are down 10% YTD.
It should be noted this number is incomplete as John Deere, Kioti, CF Moto and others do not supply sales data to the FCAI.
