Germany - motorcycle registrations +21.03%
The most recent available data from the IVM (the motorcycle industry trade association for Germany) shows new motorcycle registrations the first five months of 2026 growing at +21.03% (57,063 units).
Welcome though the news is, as elsewhere in Europe the data is still somewhat distorted as statistical reporting starts to lap the impacts of the late 2024 effects of the rush to pre-register unsold Euro 5 inventory before the new Euro 5+ regulatory framework became active at the start of 2025.
Those units were (mostly) subsequently sold by dealerships in 2025 (in H1 especially) making the apparently extreme decline in new registrations in Germany last year a less than entirely reliable metric, and the apparent strong growth being seen this year less than it appears to be.
However, the most recent three months have built on a strong start to 2026, even though the rate of growth has slowed. March was +40.27% (18,633 units), April was +7.69% (14,842 units) and May came in at +1.89% (11,802 units).
Total PTW registrations to May 2026 were +26.33% at 92,085 units (March was +45.59%/28,660 units; April was +17.18%/25,299 units; May was +7.38%/20,758 units).
As to be expected, the BMW R 1300 GS continues its market domination as the best seller in Germany with 3,757 units sold for a YTD 6.58% market share. The Kawasaki Z 900 remains in second spot (2,310 units/4.05% share); followed by the Honda CBR650 R (1,271 units/2.23%); Kawasaki Z 650 (1,084 units/1.90%); BMW F900 R, Yamaha Ténéré 700 and MT-07, followed by the CFMoto 450 MT in eighth spot followed by Yamaha'sMT-09 with Honda's CRF 1100 Africa Twin as the 10th most popular model in Germany YTD.
BMW has 14 models in the list of the top 37 best sellers in Germany for 2026 so far; Honda has 13 in the top 41, Kawaski 7 in the top 49, Yamaha 5 in the top 46 but Suzuki just 1 in the top 44 bestselling models as CFMoto starts to 'shake things up' with 5 in the top 47.
No surprise that BMW is the German market share leader (12,074 units sold for a 21.16% share (11,084 unit sales for the year ago period), with Kawasaki now second ahead of Honda third, Yamaha fourth and KTM fifth and Triumph sixth.
However, the real surprise is to see China's CFMoto in seventh spot among Germany's most popular motorcycle brands with 2,919 units sold YTD for a 5.12% share. Harley-Davidson is ninth with Suzuki 10th.
In the electric (light) motorcycles segment in Germany Stark Future continues the market leadership it took from Zero with 677 units sold, to 125 for Zero Motorcycles in second place (now a Dutch globally headquartered American manufacturer), ahead of NIU 96, Vmoto 87 with LiveWire trailing at 41.
For the record: total motorcycle registrations in Germany in 2025 were recorded as being a Euro 5 'pre-reg' distorted -36.02% (97,699 units) with total PTWs at -35.50% (161,744 units).
