The latest quarterly and 2014 half-year new motorcycle registration data released by ACEM (the Brussels based international motorcycle industry trade association) show total PTW sales in the EU up by 3.5 percent for the first six months of this year.
ACEM say that a total of 675,630 PTWs were sold in the EU in the first six months, with most major markets showing growth - Spain +16.9 percent; UK + 11.2 percent; Germany +3.7 percent; France +1.7 percent; Italy +1.1 percent.
As the data for July starts to emerge from some of Europe's National motorcycle industry trade associations it becomes apparent that the recovery remains fragile and variable, with most markets not yet able to point to consistent patterns of buying activity, however, given what has happened to the market in the past five or six years, these statistics do make good reading.
In motorcycle sales terms the news is even better. The EU has seen an 8.8 percent growth in new registrations in the first six months of the year, with 493,378 new units sold by Europe's motorcycle dealers.
Most of Europe's key markets have seen motorcycle sales growth - Spain +20.8 percent (a trend that has continued there in July); UK +13.1 percent; Germany +9.9 percent; France +6.9 percent; Italy +4.4 percent.
With more than two-thirds of the cash value of the market to be found in motorcycle sales, it would appear that wider economic issues are mostly behind us, in terms of suppressing consumer confidence at least.
That said, the growth volumes are small compared with what the market was seeing as recently as 2008, and the much poorer performance of the small displacement PTW markets suggest that regulatory and cost issues surrounding licensing and training in youth markets in particular are going to emerge from the static caused by the downturn as long-term structural problems for the industry.
Moped sales in the EU for the first six months of the year were off by -8.5 percent, at 182,104 units with Germany down by -17.1 percent; Italy - 16.2 percent; France -7.3 percent; Spain -7.1 percent; UK -5.0 percent.
