After the continued monthly decline seen in January and February this year, even before the effects of COVID-19 took hold, 2020 has not been good for U.S. imports of Japanese made motorcycles and powersports vehicles, the decline of 2019 having accelerated.
The most recent available data from JAMA (the automotive trade association in Japan, which includes representation of motorcycle manufacturers among its membership) shows exports from the 'Big Four' Japanese manufacturers' factories in Japan to the US down by -38.55% in June at a mere 1,645 units.
For the YTD, Japanese made motorcycle exports to dealers in USA are down by -39.10% at 18,126 units for the first six months of 2020. Total Japanese made PTW exports to USA were -61.77% in June (3,062 units) and -39.45% YTD (28,557 units).
The increasing number of units being made by Japanese manufacturers elsewhere in Asia, the US and South/Central America goes some way to providing historical context for the data, though the majority of higher value, larger displacement Japanese brand machines, especially those being sold in Europe, are still made in Japan.
In Europe motorcycle imports from Japan were -49.22% in June (3,713 units) and are -12.71% YTD (76,430 units), having had a strong start to the year. Over 65,000 Japanese made motorcycles went into Europe in Q1 before the pandemic struck, which was considerably up on the year-ago quarter and boded well for European Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki dealers.
The Japanese owned "overseas" factories are primarily engaged in making and selling scooters and smaller capacity units in 'emerging' markets (where import tariffs are high) and in making ATV/UTV units - especially in the United States, where demand for such machines is strongest.
Annual worldwide Japanese made motorcycle and moped exports (all PTW) fell off a cliff in 2009 to 583,879 from over 1 million in 2008, having peaked at 1,641 million units in 2000. They have continued to decline most years since then; most recently they were 463,123 units in 2017, 456,758 in 2018, and 386,379 in 2019.
