Motorcycle sales in Europe rose by 5.6% last year according to new figures released by manufacturers’ organisation ACEM.
Overall, a total of 1,209,000 motorcycles and mopeds were registered in Europe during 2015, with notable rises in some of the biggest markets including Germany, Italy and the UK. However, the trend for weak sales of mopeds is continuing.
Looking only at motorcycles, registrations were up an impressive 10.3% across Europe, with the Italian market leading the way on 171,952 sales (up 9.9% on 2014). France followed with 153,239 (down 0.1%) although Germany is poised to overtake it with 2015 sales of 151,661 (up 7.1%). Spain, with 132,532 sales, saw an impressive 18.9% increase in sales, with the UK in fifth place with 105,358 (up 15.5%).
The picture for mopeds was much less rosy. Overall European sales were down 5.5% at 325,516. Big drops were seen in many of the biggest markets including France (down 8.7% at 89,646) and Poland (down 25.3% at 30,430). Germany’s moped sales dropped 12.7% to 29,849. Of the large markets, only the Netherlands saw increased moped sales – up 4.9% at 65,932.
Overall, though the rises in large motorcycle sales – spearheaded by machines like the BMW R1200 GS – more than overcame the drop in small capacity machines.
ACEM Secretary General Antonio Perlot said: “We will still need to wait until July 2016 to assess whether this is a real recovery, but the sector seems to have regained momentum in 2015. This was a very positive year for the industry, with registrations increasing in most European countries, particularly in large markets like Italy, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom.”
However, there’s still a long way to go for the market to recover to pre-crisis levels. Perlot said: “In 2015 about 1.21 million vehicles were registered. That is still less than half the registration levels we saw before the economic crisis (2.43 million units in 2007).
“This industry needs supportive policies that promote job creation in the manufacturing sector as well as vehicle exports to third countries”.
