Germany motorcycle registrations
The latest data from the IVM, the motorcycle industry trade association in Germany, shows new motorcycle registrations are down slightly for the first five months of the year at 55,962 (-1.59% compared to the 56,867 unit registered in 2020). Having been down in January and February, up in March and April, there were 13,600 units registered in May (-6.36% compared to last year, and down massively compared to the 65,719 units registered in 2019).
In total PTW terms, the German market was up at 87,477 units YTD (+2.73% compared to the 85,151 units recorded for the first five months of 2020). That compares to 87,756 units sold January to May 2019 - the best for the first five months of any year since 2008.
In market share terms, BMW remained market leader with a much improved 28.05% share at 15,696 units sold YTD - BMW had seven models in the top twenty best sellers. Honda is in second spot in market share terms, followed by Kawasaki, KTM and Yamaha.
Unsurprisingly, the top selling model was BMW's R 1250 GS (5,501 units YTD), followed by the Kawasaki Z900 and Z650 in third, Honda CRF 1000L Africa Twin fourth, and the BMW F 900 R fifth.
For the record - the 2019 full year saw the German motorcycle market grow by +4.38% compared to 2018 at 113,039 units, with 2020 posting a (theoretical) 132,126 units, however, that apparent 16.89% growth in a pandemic hit year was distorted in the final quarter by the rush to pre-register unsold Euro 4 bikes before the final, extended deadline for doing so on December 31st - so, at best, and in common with the data for all of Europe's 'Big Five' (Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the UK) account for some 80% of total motorcycle registrations; the German data for 2020 is 'problematic' for multiple reasons.
