In a stark contrast to the trends being seen elsewhere in Europe, Italian new motorcycle registrations (as reported by trade association ANCMA) are growing strongly after the market there suffered the same early season Euro 3/Euro 4 inventory crossover impacts seen in most other markets.
For September, registrations are reported at 5,898 new motorcycles, which is +13.40 percent compared to September 2016, and the 7th straight month of growth for the Italian market.
On a year-to-date basis, sales are running at +10.43 percent for the first 9 months of 2017, at 72,295 new units registered so far this year.
This contrasts with Germany, where the latest available statistics (through August 2017) put the market at -6.38 percent YTD (85,821 units), the UK at -15.38 percent through September (79,605 units), and Spain, where motorcycle registrations are -8.03 percent for the period through September (at 105,230 units YTD).
In addition to Italy, the only other of Europe’s “Big Five” markets to report positive results so far this year is France, where PTWs in the 125cc and above market (excluding scooters) were at +3.8 percent at 111,934 units through to August.
In Italy total PTWs sales are +6.88 percent for the first nine months of 2017 at 177,230 units. In 2016 motorcycle registrations in Italy were +21.49 percent at 75,936 units; total PTW registrations were +13.26 percent for the full year at 193,814 units.
Scooter sales so far in 2017 are up by +4.56 percent at 104,935 units for the first nine months.
The organisers claim that 2016 saw big increases in exhibitor and visitor numbers, including “trade visitors”, but such data that is released by the EICMA administration makes it difficult to authenticate such claims. Indeed, most exhibitors (Italian and international) that IDN spoke with last year thought that attendance (trade and consumer) and, in particular international trade attendance, was down on 2015, and that it has been steadily in decline at EICMA for some years.
Certainly the many open spaces seen in the halls in 2016 suggested that the available exhibitor footprint had continued to contract.
Despite an initial attempt to add another public day to the show, it follows its usual schedule this year of two press and (theoretically) trade/preview days (November 7 & 8), followed by four public attendance days (November 9 through 12).
