Italy: motorcycles +5.41% January to October
The new year started strongly in Italy, with motorcycle registrations +23.31%, +27.81% and +16.18% for January, February and March respectively. However, despite a soft four months from April to July (July was -7.46%/13,194 units), the latest available data from ANCMA - the motorcycle industry trade association in Italy - show the uptick seen in August (+13.50%/6,870 units) sustained in September (+5.46%/9,394) through to a dramatic +17.30% increase in October (7,945 units) for the best performance for that month in Italy since before 2014 - as it was for August and September too.
The increases may represent registrations of sold but awaited inventory, as the logistics issues that had bottlenecked Japanese production (in particular) started to ease in the late summer. For the YTD, Italy was +5.41%, with 116,565 motorcycles registered.
In total PTW terms, the year to October saw Italy -1.76% at 247,210 units, though, again, October was huge at +28.08% (20,264 total PTWs registered) and the best there since before 2011.
Of the total units registered YTD, ANCMA is classifying 130,645 as scooters, which is -7.37% compared to the ten months of 2021.
The Benelli TRK 502/X was again the top-selling motorcycle YTD at 6,395 units, which also makes it the fourth best seller overall behind the Honda SH 125 in first spot, KYMCO Agility 125 R16 in second, and Honda SH 150 in third. The BMW R 1250 GS is the second bestselling motorcycle (3,753 units YTD), followed by the Ténéré 700 (2,581), Multistrada V4/S and the Keeway RKF 125 (recorded as the top-selling 'naked' style motorcycle YTD with 1,982 units registered).
For the record - Italy was again the largest market in Europe in 2021, with motorcycle registrations +26.49% (119,079 units) compared to 2020 - the best for more than a decade. Total PTWs were +23.58% for the 2021 full year with a massive 270,232 total units sold - also the best for a decade (218,677 units in 2020, 231,985 in 2019). The bestselling motorcycle in Italy in 2021 was the Benelli TRK 502/X (6,543 units).
