The latest statistics released by the German motorcycle industry trade association (IVM) for the period to the end of June 2017 may still be showing some evidence of the effects of the rush to pre-register Euro 3 inventory before the December 31st 2016 deadline, but the degree of statistical lag is levelling out.
In motorcycle registration terms, the market was said to have been down by -9.26 percent compared to June 2016 (12,135 units from 13,373); that said, May saw registrations up by +1.56 percent at 12,847 units (compared to 12,650 in May 2016).
For the year to date, German market motorcycle registrations are put at -8.40 percent (66,939 units for the first six months of 2017; 73,078 in 2016), representing recovery in percentage terms at least from the alarming drop-off reported in the industry numbers at the start of the year.
In total PTW registration terms, June was down by -12.01 percent (17,078 units), with YTD figures at -12.15 percent (87,888 units so far in 2017 compared to 100,047 for the first six months of 2016).
As usual these days, BMW’s R 1200 GS is the top-seller in Germany so far in 2017 (5,799 units sold), with Yamaha’s MT-07 second (2,021 units YTD), the Kawasaki Z 650 third (1,872 units), Honda’s CRF 1000 ‘Africa Twin’ fourth (1,706 units) and BMW’s R nineT variants fifth (1,615 units).
With 10 models in the top 20 selling list, it is again no surprise that BMW is market share leader so far this year in Germany, with 17,737 units sold so far in total for a 20.18 percent market share and 5.23 percent unit gain over the 16,856 units they sold in the first six months of 2016.
Honda is second with 11,455 units sold so far, 13.03 percent market share; Yamaha is third (9,234 units sold for a 10.51 percent share); Kawasaki is fourth (8.78 percent share, 7,716 units sold); KTM is up to fifth with 7,325 units sold (8.33 percent share) and Harley-Davidson is sixth (6.80 percent share/5,975 units).
Though distorted by the rush to pre-register Euro 3 inventory towards the end of the year, 2016 saw new motorcycle registrations in Germany up by +15.01 percent at 117,587 units – the best annual market performance in Germany since before 2008. In total Powered Two-Wheeler terms (PTW), the German market was +14.81 percent for 2016 at 172,846 units – also the best German market performance since before 2008.
