Germany: motorcycles +24.86% to February
In a significant rebound (the German motorcycle market was -7.22% for the 2022 full year), the most recent available data from the IVM (the motorcycle trade association in Germany) show January and February motorcycle registration at +31.26% (4,598 units) and +22.29% (10,677 units) for January and February respectively.
This has given the German market a strong start to 2023 with a combined first two-month performance of +24.86% (15,275 units, compared to 12,234 in 2022); despite continuing economic uncertainties, this has been the strongest start to the year in Germany since before 2009.
Reflecting continued benefit from licence changes, in total PTW terms, the German market was +26.32% after the first two months (23,616 units) - also the best start to the year since before 2009.
With no fewer than nine models in the top 20 best sellers, it is no surprise that BMW has maintained its commanding dominance in its home market with 4,538 units sold so far for a 29.71% market share. Honda is second (2,264/14.82%), with Yamaha third (1,191/7.80%), followed by KTM, Harley, Kawasaki, Ducati, Suzuki, Triumph and Husqvarna in 10th spot.
The BMW R 1250 GS has continued into 2023 as the best-selling model so far this year with 1,358 units sold, followed by the F 900 R and S1000RR for a BMW clean sweep of the top three spots. The Honda CRF 1000 Africa Twin shows the continuing rise of ADV style models in fourth, and the Z 900 as fifth shows Kawasaki's market resurgence of recent years as continuing.
In electric motorcycle terms, Zero was the top selling brand YTD but on low volumes (33 units sold, down from 24 for the corresponding period in 2022), followed by Vmoto, TKTM, Energica and eRockit. Though road-going electric motorcycles are only part of the EPTW story, they are a bellwether, and with the top-five brands only recording 68 units registered between them (with the full German electric motorcycles only numbering 139), there is clearly a long way to go if market investments are ever to show a return.
In this context, the EU's compromise of its 2035 new ICE vehicle ban in the face of the powerful German auto lobby to allow post-2035 registration of vehicles that run exclusively on e-fuels, puts some of the EPTW forecasts being seen used for ambitions stock market flotations into an even more ambitious context. Vehicles with internal combustion engines can now still be newly registered throughout the EU after 2035, if they fill up exclusively with CO2-neutral fuels.
For the record: German motorcycle registrations were -7.22% for the full year in 2022 (107,992 units) thanks to the ongoing beneficial impacts of changes in domestic German licencing; total PTW registrations were essentially flat at +0.69% (201,433 units).
