It may come as a surprise to many people to realise that Switzerland, population just over 8 million people, is Europe's sixth largest motorcycle market.
Leaving aside 'motocyclettes' (of which there are some 171,000 in ownership in Switzerland), the most recent available data (2013) says that those 8 million people own and use 274,000 scooters and a massive 413,920 motorcycles; that’s 687,990 motorcycles and scooters combined.
That means that better than one in every 8 Swiss of riding age owns a motorcycle - only Italy has a higher rate of PTW ownership per head of population in Europe, and compare that to an equivalent estimate of less than one in 12 French citizens, less than one in 15 Germans, less than one in 20 Spaniards, and less than one in 30 Britons.
It is no wonder that Zurich's annual Swiss Moto is such a well attended event, and one that carries such a strong reputation among the international parts and accessory as well as motorcycle exhibitor community.
Last year more than 47,000 new motorcycles were sold in Switzerland. So far this year the latest data available from the Swiss motorcycle industry association (motosuisse) puts total new motorcycle and scooter registrations as up by +3.4 percent at 10,349 units.
Of those 6,459 were motorcycles, which is +14.68 over the 5,632 motorcycles sold in the fist quarter of 2014; of those a massive 5,394 units, over 80 percent of the motorcycles sold in Switzerland in the first three months of the year, were over 500cc. Switzerland is a large displacement market, which is why Harley-Davidson has done so well there historically.
Yamaha are market leaders in Switzerland, selling 2,398 motorcycles and scooters in the first quarter, with Honda second (1,441 units), BMW third (940 units), Kawasaki fourth (756 units) and Harley-Davidson fifth (674 units).
www.motosuisse.ch
