The latest data available from the MCIA, the motorcycle industry association in the UK, shows that having been +13.43% up in June (12,520 units), after being -51.86% in May (4,965 units), -83.93% (1,467 units) in April and -22.19% in March (12,484 units), new motorcycle registrations in the UK were up in July 2020 by +41.96% (13,093 units) and have now recovered to "just" -16.73% for the first seven months of the year (54,494 units).
In YTD motorcycle registration terms, the UK is now "only" running at -16.73% (54,494 units YTD). In total PTW terms, the UK was +41.72% in July (13,945 units in total) and is -16.13% YTD (57,807 units in total).
Honda was market share leader in July, followed by Yamaha, Lexmoto, BMW and Kawasaki. The top selling Adventure Sport motorcycle in July was the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure (207 units); the top selling Sport/Touring model was the Kawasaki Ninja 1000 SX; the top selling Touring model was the BMW R 1250 RT. The most popular sector of the UK market remains Naked style machines (17,989 units sold YTD).
By way of context - motorcycle registrations in the UK grew slightly in 2019, +0.72%, with 100,472 units sold. Many in the UK pointed to consumer confidence being low as a result of Brexit and general economic uncertainty in 2019 as the reasons why the UK motorcycle market didn't do as well as elsewhere in Europe last year. Along with Italy, France, Germany and Spain, the UK remains one of Europe's 'Big Five' markets (actually, the 5th largest) who between them account for over 80% of annual new registrations in Europe.
