The motorcycle market seemed to have stabilised in Q1 (-1.2% on 2017). Unfortunately this was only temporary. Q2 saw the market drop again to end the half -5.9% YTD. This is on the back of the 4.1% drop in H1 2017
In total 47,942 units were retailed in the first 6 months of 2018.
Road bikes dropped 12.8% H1 2016 to 2017 and in H1 2018 the dropped a further 5.3% (to 19,075 units). 3,984 less road bikes retailed H1 2018 Vs H1 2016.
In H1 2018 Honda was the only Japanese brand to post a decline in road bikes (-8.3% to 3,853 units). The other main losers were Harley (-18.15 to 3,629 units) and Ducati (-15.4% to 738 units).
Honda is now the no. 1 road brand over taking Harley.
The 7 brands, overall, that sold over 3,000 units in H1 were:
- Honda with 11,655 units sold (-7.6%)
- Yamaha with 10,085 sales (+2.6%)
- Kawasaki with 4,718 sales (+3.3%)
- Suzuki with 3,724 sales (-5.3%)
- Harley-Davidson with 3,629 sales (-18.1%)
- KTM with 3,476 sales (+5.9%)
- Polaris with 3,098 sales (+11.2%)
These 7 brands represent 84% of the reported market.
Prestige / Euro brands
Road bikes dropped by 5.3%. The sales of the euro brands fared slightly better than the market (with a -2% drop combined)
Ducati’s tough start to the year continued into Q2 and they finished the half -15.4%.
Aprilia and Moto Guzzi now fully transitioned to a new importer are steadily rebuilding with both significantly up (from a low base) YOY; 111 units (+88.1%) and 74 units (29.8%) respectively.
Cruiser
Harley bad start to the year continues at the halfway point Harley sales sit down 18.1% YOY. Harley has also dropped from 4th to 5th in total sales.
The positive take out is Harley sold (5) more bikes in the colder Q2 than it did in Q1 2018.
Indian posted strong growth for the H1 (+28.3%) to 453 units. The Scout continues to drive sales retailing 258 units (57% of total Indian sales).
The 4 LAMS cruisers in the Top 10 cruisers account 23% of the total road bike market (ex postie bike) indicating strong interest and future in this category.
LAMS
7 of the top 10 Road bikes are LAMS and one is a postie bike, so only 2 large bore bikes in the Top 10.
Without the full market report, it’s hard to give an accurate report but it appears that LAMs are responsible for over a 1/3 of all retails in the road bike market (excluding postie bikes) and this seems relatively consistent.
The sheen has definitely come of the Grom which was down 40% to 355 units YOY.
Uber eats, Deliveroo etc. may be providing some additional growth for this market as evidenced by the strong sales of the CB125E (up 93% to 637 units) and Suzuki’s GSX-S125 also retailed 76 units.
These 713 125s represent close to 12% of the LAMs road bike market (excluding postie bike) and 3.9% of the total road bike market (excluding postie bike)
In the H1 2016 Honda only sold 406 125s and this represented 1.9% of the road bike market (excluding postie bike).
The road bike market (excluding postie bike) shrank 2,974 units in the first half over the past 2 years (H1 2018 Vs H1 2016) and these cheaper lower CC bikes are taking a larger portion of the remaining sales.
Royal Enfield, Benelli, SWM, CF Moto and a number of predominately LAMs brands are not part of the FCAI so these numbers are only part of the picture. In reality while LAMs look to represent roughly 1/3 of bikes retailed the actual number will be higher.
Scooters
The scooter market posted a modest increase +2.9% in Q1 and this has continued into Q2 with H1 finishing up 10.9% to 2,091 units. As mentioned above the rise of Uber Eats, Deliveroo etc. may be providing some much-needed growth for this market and the low CC commuter bikes.
PSI group (Aprilia, Piaggio & Vespa) own 49% of the reported market.
The data on the scooter market is incomplete with SYM, Kymco and other brands not submitting numbers.
Dirt Bikes
In H1 dirt bikes sales were down 4.8% to 15,580 units retailed (vs 16,368 in 2017).
Q1 was pretty good for Dirt (in that it was on par with q1 2017), however a large portion of the sales were kids bikes. Q2 however was down 7.8% YOY and again a large portion of these sales were the low to no margin kids bikes
Yamahas started the year slow but Q2 was strong for them. Yamaha and Kawasaki were the only brands to sell more in Q2 2018 Vs Q2 2017.
ATV
The ATV market had a significant drop selling 11,196 units (-10.7%) in Q2 (this number is incomplete as John Deere, Kioti, CF Moto, Kymco and others do not supply sales data to the FCAI).
1,332 units less were sold in Q2 2018 than in Q2 2017 and all brands posted a decline!
BRP was the only OEM to sell more in Q2 2018 (909 units) than in Q2 2017 (831 units) but were still down overall due to poor first quarter (they were also the brand that posted the lowest drop for H1; down 2.8%).
Hondas suffered the largest drop of any OEM YOY down 16.2% (to 3,065 units). Their market share is steadily being eroded.
They currently sit on 27% market share. At the end of H1 2015 they had 33% market share.
In the same period BRP has grown from 8% to 12% and Polaris 24% to 28%
At the end of H1 the market was this:
