Germany's apparently relentless march to market recovery continued in July with the latest data from the IVM, the motorcycle industry trade association in Germany, showing new model registrations massively up over the same month of 2019 at +41.25%, 17,339 units (+21.64%/14,010 units in June).
That means the German market has now largely put the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on new motorcycle registrations into its rear view mirror, with YTD new model registrations now in the positive for the YTD at +0.80% for the first seven months of 2020, with 88,216 units registered (compared to 87,512 in 2019).
In the context of 2020, the motorcycle registration statistics in Germany for 2020 so far have been remarkable. The market demonstrated the same promising start to the year that was seen elsewhere in Europe, having been +37.14% (4,446 units) in January. After the start of a decline in February (-3.98%/9,252 units), as Germany responded to the upcoming health emergency hard and early, motorcycle registrations were -18.70% in March (16,581 units) and -28.14% (12,064 units) in April, but started to recover spectacularly in May (+6.33%/14,524 units).
Indeed, in total PTW terms, it looks very much like the theory that the urban mobility and isolation messages that PTWs have in their favour are being taken up by commuters. Total PTW registrations in July were up +54.95% at 29,977 units (compared to 19,346 in July 2019) in Germany, putting the YTD at +13.19% for the first seven months (140,840 units, compared to 124,426 in 2019).
In motorcycle market share terms, BMW remains 'Top Dog' in its home market with a modestly reduced 21.86% share YTD (19,287 units sold and six models in the top 20 best sellers list in Germany YTD), followed by Kawasaki, Honda, KTM and Yamaha.
The top selling model was BMW's R 1250 GS (6,653 units YTD), followed by the Kawasaki Z900 (Z650 in fourth), Yamaha MT-07 third (Ténéré 700 in 9th), KTM 790 Duke, 690 SMC and 390 Duke in 5th, 6th and 8th spots, Honda CMX 500 Rebel in 7th and BMW S 1000 XR 10th.
Last year saw the German motorcycle market grow by +4.38% to 113,039 units, with PTW sales growing by +6.53% to 165,311 units.
