Always the quickest to compile its data, the latest new Powered Two-Wheeler (PTW) registration numbers from ANESDOR, the motorcycle industry trade association in Spain, the first released for March, gives us an insight into how the coronavirus pandemic has already started to affect the major markets in Europe, and they do not make pretty reading.
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| Jose Maria Riano, General Secretary of ANESDOR |
For context, Spanish PTW motorcycle registrations were +12.17% in 2019, with 194,663 units registered, the best market performance in Spain since before 2008.
The year was off to a good start, with January +13.45% and February +21.43%, and over 14,000 new PTWs sold in each of the first two months of 2020. Then it hit the fan. There were 16,201 registrations recorded in March 2019, but for March 2020 registrations were down by
-43.66% at 9,128 units.
For the year to date, the first quarter of 2020, the market in Spain is -6.88% cumulatively in PTW terms (38,047 units), having been +18.69% (40,858 units) for Q1 of 2019.
Statistically, the figures are even worse in Spain when looking at motorcycles alone. The market there was -46.64% (7,997 units) in March, having been +19.28%/12,825 units in February and +11.96%/12,373 units in January.
For the first quarter as a whole, the motorcycle market in Spain is -9.79% (33,188 units), having been +18.13% (36,789 units) for Q1 2019.
Jose Maria Riano, General Secretary of ANESDOR, says that March was going quite well in Spain until around March 14, which was when the Spanish Prime Minister effectively declared a state of emergency - the market became paralyzed straight away.
In percentage terms, ANESDOR says that it should be noted that until March 13 growth was running at +37.8% and then fell by -89% in the second half of March.
Riano said: "With every day that passes with the market closed, any recovery becomes more difficult for the companies in the sector. In this emergency we are going through, it is necessary to take the appropriate measures to minimize both the social and the economic impact. It is necessary to think about a crash plan to recover the automotive and motorcycle sectors if we want to preserve jobs.
"ANESDOR is keeping the communication channels open with the Government of Spain and, through ACEM in Brussels, with the European Commission with the objective of seeking coordinated solutions in this situation of health crisis - social and economic."