The latest data released by the MCIA (Motorcycle Industry Association) in the UK shows new motorcycle registrations in September down by -13.65 percent (6,686 units), following -18.54 percent in August and -24.04 percent in September (11,276 units). On a year to date basis, the UK market is -15.25 percent (86,291 units).
Moped sales were -17.39 percent in October and are running at -19.86 percent year-to-date (5,902 units). In total PTW terms the UK was down -13.99 percent in October (7,332 units in total) and running at -15.56 percent YTD (92,193 units).
However, as elsewhere in Europe, the statistics are misleading due to the Euro 3 inventory pre-registration issue. British Dealer News recently reported MCIA CEO Tony Campbell as saying that when the Euro 3/Euro 4 impacts are taken into consideration, then he thinks the real picture for the UK market this year will be ‘flat’, if not slightly up on 2016, at around 107,000 to 110,000 units.
‘Naked’ style bikes remain the most popular in the UK (27,631 units YTD), which is relative growth compared to other styles of bikes at -10.0 percent in a motorcycle market that is down -15.25 percent overall), followed by Adventure Sport models (16,510 units YTD, up by +1.4 percent). The UK scooter market has seen sales drop by -28.8 percent YTD (16,270 units) and the historically dominant Supersport market is down -25.8 percent (8,589 units YTD).
Honda was overall market share leader in October (motorcycles and scooters), having sold 1,554 units, followed by Yamaha (1,003), BMW (522) and Triumph (504).
The MCIA reports that the total number of road registered motorcycles in use has continued to grow, with the latest available figures putting the number of “regular users of PTWs” at 1.445 million units in total, a nine-year high.
