German motorcycle industry worth 11 billion euro a yearThe motorcycle industry trade association in Germany, the IVM, staged a half day conference in Cologne in May at which Chief Executive Reiner Brendicke presented the outcome of a research project that sought to establish the size and importance of the German motorcycle market in economic terms.
Described as a “cross-cutting” sector, one that involves several kinds of economic activity and has its impacts across several fields of commerce in Germany, Brendicke introduced his findings by saying that “the motorcycle industry in Germany is an extensive network which takes its value from the engineering service, individuality, design and life in general in terms of its economic importance and now, for the first time, we have been able to document just how deep the integration of the motorcycle industry goes in social and economic terms”.
The background for the research has been the cycle that the German market, like all others in Europe, has been through in the past decade. Ours is a market in which the quality and popularity of our products have always been subject to macro-economic, demographic and wider social issues over which we, as a specific market, have very little influence.
11 percent of Germans own a PTW
As has been done by ACEM, the Brussels based international motorcycle industry trade association for Europe, Brendicke sought to once and for all draw attention to and define the considerable economic impact that our modest little backwater of capitalism actually has as a part of the bigger picture in the one language that everyone can understand – money.
His conclusion is that the value of the motorcycle industry to the economy of Germany is not quite so modest after all. Okay, compared to the biggest of economic beasts such as automotive, technology, energy, construction and the like, the motorcycle industry is small, yes, but in the land of the “Mittelstand”, small really is beautiful.
As a specialty industry, the narrow definition annual turnover of 7.3 billion euro uncovered by Mr Brendicke and his team starts to look more than respectable.
Indeed, it starts to look like the kind of economic contribution that regulators, administrators and politicians would be well advised to help nurture.
That turnover figure takes account of the production, sales and repair of motorcycles and scooters in Germany, together with production and sales of parts and accessories. However, taking the collateral impacts of the motorcycle business into account – the ancillary services and products it funds – the broader definition turnover becomes 11.6 billion euro in Germany alone.
The IVM report concludes that every 400th generated euro in the German economy and every 330th job in Germany are directly or indirectly created by the motorcycle industry. Direct employment is put at 28,600 jobs, created by the sale and repair of motorcycles, with a further 22,500 or more jobs being created in the wholesale and ancillary industries.
This can then be extrapolated to a total broad definition of 130,000 jobs in total being created by the impact of motorcycle industry activity in Germany.
In the past three years total German exports have increased by 11 percent. In the same period the German motorcycle industry has seen its exports grow, in real terms, by some 46 percent; from 2005, when exports were worth some 980 million euro, it has grown a decade later to be worth 1.7 million in exports in 2015 – that is 0.15 percent of total German exports.
In addition to the economic value of the production and sale of motorcycles and the equipping of riders, the IVM also points to the economic value of their use – the savings in terms of parking provision costs, the savings in time costs, congestion reduction and the estimated savings of greenhouse gas emissions – put at the equivalent of 39,343 tons of CO2 a year.
In 2014 the population of Germany was put at 82 million people; the number of motorcycles and scooters in use in Germany is put at being over 5.9 million. With some 66 percent of the German population (men and women) being, broadly speaking, of typical riding age (15–65), that equates to a PTW ownership rate of nearly 11 percent - or more than one in ten Germans of estimated riding age owning a motorcycle, scooter or other form of PTW. On the same math (33m PTWs owned by an estimated typical riding age population of 335 million), this is slightly ahead of the EU average of just under 10 percent owning a PTW.
On a narrow basis ACEM estimate that the motorcycle industry makes a direct contribution of around 35 billion euro and 155,000 jobs to the economy of the EU – meaning that Germany’s contribution is around a quarter, and a third of the overall EU impact of the motorcycle industry on the overall EU economy.
No surprise then that the IVM should consider its findings worth profiling. Also no surprise if they are hoping that doing so will see the recent moment of epiphany that has seen the European Commission conduct a volte face and accept the motorcycle industry as a valid and valuable partner in achieving its economic, transport and environmental aims replicated in the Federal Republic.
Progress has been made in Germany recently in terms of the licensing changes that hit the market hard – as it did and continues to do in all of Europe’s big five markets – and trickle-down from the Central Commissariat in Brussels is starting to result in somewhat more enlightened thinking where the role of PTWs in public policy making in Europe is concerned.
Research such as this produced by the IVM is invaluable in framing the arguments in favour of allowing the motorcycle industry to be seen as a part of the solution, not the problem, so compliments and congratulations to the IVM on their findings!
