Germany: Motorcycles +4.56% for the Eight Months to August
Germany's apparently relentless march to market recovery continued in July and August with the latest data from the IVM, the motorcycle industry trade association in Germany, showing new model registrations massively up over August last year at +41.09% (12,704 units), having been +41.25% (17,393 units) in July and +21.64%/14,010 units in June.
That means the German market has now largely put the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic on new motorcycle registrations into its rear view mirror with YTD new model registrations now in the positive for the YTD at +4.56% for the first eight months of 2020 (100,920 units).
In the context of 2020, the motorcycle registration statistics in Germany for 2020 so far have been remarkable. The market demonstrated the same promising start to the year that was seen elsewhere in Europe, having been +37.14% (4,446 units) in January. After the start of a decline in February (-3.98%/9,252 units) as Germany responded to the upcoming health emergency hard and early, motorcycle registrations were -18.70% in March (16,581 units) and -28.14% (14,524 units) in April, but started to recover spectacularly in May (+6.33%/14,524 units), suggesting that demand hadn't gone away, with consumers buying when they judged the moment right to do so.
Indeed, in total PTW terms, it looks very much like the theory that the urban mobility and isolation messages that PTWs have in their favor are being taken up by commuters. Total PTW registrations in July were up +54.95% at 29,977 units and +59.57% (23,146 units) in August, putting the YTD at +18.03% for the first eight months (163,986 units).
Harley remained in 6th spot in German market share terms for the year to August with a reduced share of 8.32% and 8,394 units sold YTD (-4.10% decline over the first 8 months of 2019). Their top seller was the Street Bob (987 units, the 27th bestselling model in Germany YTD), followed by the XL 1200 X (686 units) and the Sport Glide (622 sold).
Indian Motorcycle was up to 12th spot in market share terms for the first eight months of the year with a 1.45% share and a massive 43.60% bump in unit sales YTD to 1,459 units sold there.
In overall motorcycle market share terms, BMW remains 'Top Dog' in its home market with a modestly reduced 20.91% share YTD (21,103 units sold and six models in the Top 20 best sellers in Germany YTD), followed by Kawasaki, Honda, KTM, Yamaha and Harley.
The top selling model was BMW's R 1250 GS (7,338 units YTD), followed by the Kawasaki Z900 (Z650 in fourth), Yamaha MT-07 third (Ténéré 700 in 9th), KTM 690 SMC, 790 Duke and 390 Duke in 5th, 6th and 8th spots, Honda CMX 500 Rebel in 7th and BMW S 1000 XR 10th.
Last year saw the German motorcycle market grow by +4.38% to 113,039 units, with PTW sales growing by +6.53% to 165,311 units.