GLOBAL MOTORCYCLE SALES STUMBLE
Global motorcycle sales were a mixed bag for major manufacturers in 2019. Despite recording sales of 60.1 million units in 2019, the global motorcycle market shrunk by 1.6 million and the forecast for 2020 isn’t clear nor sunny.
Global motorcycle sales grew to its highest level ever in 2018 with 61.7 million units sold, but last year was particularly difficult for the Indian market which experienced a 3.1-million downturn in sales. Luckily, increases of 1.3 million units in China and 1.1 million units in Europe helped offset the disappointing performance of the world’s largest motorcycle market.
Although the Indian market shrunk by 19% between 2018 and 2019, it still reigned as the largest two-wheeler market in the world with 18.5 million in sales. China trailed close behind with 16.3 million, but the field took a sharp drop from there with Indonesia at 6.5 million, Vietnam coming in at 3.2 million, and the Philippines reporting 1.8 million. For some perspective, the United States took the 11th spot on the list, Japan’s poor performance in 2019 earned it the 15th slot, and Europe’s highest-selling country, France, ranked as low as 17th.
Vehicle type also factors into the equation with the 50cc+ scooter segment responsible for 25.8 million in sales. Motorcycles nip at the scooter’s heels with 24.8 million units sold while trikes represent 4.7 million and mopeds bring in 4.6 million units. Quadricycles/ATV had 600,000 units sold.
While the global moto market declined by 2.6% in 2019, the spread of Coronavirus Disease could result in further losses in 2020.
–By Bill Bish
Editor NCOM Biker Newsbytes
See his full March Report on Bikernet: https://www.bikernet.com/pages/story_detail.aspx?id=14608&id=14608
