The latest statistics released by the German motorcycle industry trade association (IVM) for the period to the end of October 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 caused for the year is now becoming clear.
New registrations in Germany are said to be running at -8.01 percent for the first ten months of the year, but allowing for the Euro 3 pre-registrations and other factors affecting dealer inventory and unit sales for 2017, the market is, in all probability, broadly ‘flat’ for 2017 so far, in the region between -2.5 and +2.5 percent in motorcycle sales terms.
Though heavily incentivised units, the Euro 3 models that were pre-registered in the final quarter of 2016 will still have been “new” machines as far as consumers are concerned and will have been sold during the first half of this year, artificially reducing the apparent market performance. The pre-registrations pushed the German 2016 statistics to show an artificially high +15.01 percent, German new motorcycle registrations having been +5.59 percent and +10.75 percent for 2015 and 2014 respectively.
In total PTW registration terms, October 2017 was down by -16.30 percent (6,392 units), having been only marginally down in July at -0.90 percent (15,304 units), - 9.22 percent in August and -21.87 percent in September. For the first ten months of 2017 registrations were -11.76 percent at 132,333 units.
As usual these days, BMW’s R 1200 GS continues its inexorable march towards global domination, having sold 7,973 units so far in 2017, leaving Yamaha’s MT-07 eating its dust in second with 3,397 units sold, followed by the Kawasaki Z 650 (2,590 units), Honda’s CRF 1000 ‘Africa Twin’ (2,454 units) and Kawasaki’s Z 900 (2,125 units).
With 7 models in the top 20 selling list, it is again no surprise that BMW is motorcycle and total PTW market share leader so far this year in Germany, with 24,255 units sold so far for an 18.33 percent increased market share. Honda is second (16,984 units sold for a 12.83 percent market share), with Yamaha third (16,022 units sold for a 12.11 percent market share), followed by KTM, Kawasaki, Piaggio, Harley-Davidson, Ducati, Suzuki and Triumph tenth.
