Following a modest but positive trend in 2013, data released by the IVM (the German motorcycle association) shows that the German market has started this year with strong growth compared to January 2013. Total PTW sales for January this year in Germany were 3,947 units, up 34.34 percent on January 2013.
Within that figure, motorcycle sales were up 41.13 percent at 2,728 units, meaning that the larger displacement end of the market took 69.12 percent of unit volume in Germany in January.
Industry observers are of course pointing to the weather as being likely to be as much of a driving factor as economic considerations, positive though they are in Germany at this time. While January has been wet, it has been relatively mild without the extreme cold and snow seen in 2013.
Reinforcing the trend towards larger displacement models, top-end scooters were up by 30.25 percent, with smaller displacement motorcycles and scooters up by 23.20 and 11.61 percent respectively.
As reported in MotoWeek recently, data released in January by ACEM, the Brussels based motorcycle industry association, shows Germany to have been Europe’s second largest PTW market in terms of the total number of machines in use at the end of 2012 (Italy having the largest ‘bike park’ in Europe). ACEM’s estimate puts the market as being worth some 5.75 million units – a figure that has stayed remarkably stable (despite the downturn, since at least 2005).
Last year Germany was Europe’s third largest market in annual new PTW registration terms, with IVM data putting the market up by 1.31 percent at 129, 357 units, 87,423 were motorcycles (+2.65 percent). In terms of the last decade, ACEM data shows the German market to have peaked in 2006, at some 275,000 total units registered - meaning that, if sustained throughout 2014, the market stabilisation and modest growth being seen currently may be about to end a cycle of decline that has seen the German market lose 38 percent by volume in new registration terms in the last 7 years.
As with elsewhere in Europe, it would appear that the trends being seen in Germany mean that there is an ageing ‘bike park’, which should have positive implications on a moving forward basis for new unit sales, pre-owned motorcycle values and demand, and the demand for workshop activity, parts and accessories.
