Scooters are undergoing a sales resurgence despite the overall national motorcycle market recording a 5.9 per cent decline for the first six months of 2018 compared with the same period last year.
Scooters were the only segment to show improvement with a 10.9 per cent increase, albeit off a low sales base. From January to June, motorcycle industry sales totalled 47,942 compared with 50,939 for the same period in 2017.
The segment most affected by the 2018 downturn was ATVs and SSVs with a 10.7 per cent fall. Off-Road bikes were less affected but declined 4.8 per cent, and road bikes fell by 5.3 per cent from January to June, compared with the same six month period in 2017.
The overall market leader was Honda, selling 11,655 new bikes (down 7.6%), but still commanding 24.3 per cent of the overall market. Yamaha was the second largest seller (10,085 units), an increase of 2.6 per cent on the same period last year and with a 21 per cent overall market share.
In third place overall was Kawasaki, selling 4,718 units (for a 9.8% share) and also increasing its share of the overall market by 3.3 per cent in the process. Suzuki came fourth with 3,724 units, or 7.8% of the market, and Harley Davidson was fifth with 3,629 units sold. Regrettably for Harley-Davidson, this was an 18.1 per cent decline over the same period last year.
In the ATV/SSV segment, Polaris grabbed the market lead with 3,098 units sold (27.7% share), followed very closely by Honda with 3,065 units (27.4%), and Yamaha in third with 2095 units (18.7%). ATV/SSV sales accounted for 23.3% of total industry sales in the first half of the year.
In the Off-Road segment, which accounted for 32.5% of total market sales, Yamaha again retained top spot, selling 4,740 motorcycles (30.4% segment share) followed by Honda with 4,180 units (26.8%), and KTM with 2,682 units or 17.2 per cent overall off-road segment share.
The largest segment of the market was again Road bikes, accounting for 39.8% of all sales. Honda was the leader of the pack selling 3,853 or 20.2 per cent of all road motorcycles, followed by Harley-Davidson selling 3,629 units (19% segment share). Yamaha was in third place selling 3,014 units (15.8%) of all road motorcycles, but increased its share of the segment by 5.2 per cent over the first half of 2017.
Scooters are having a small resurgence in 2018 and to the end of the first half of the year, produced a 10.9 per cent growth over the same period last year. However, these sales only account for 4.4 per cent of overall industry sales. In this segment, Honda leads the sales race, selling 557 units for a 26.6 per cent segment share, followed by Piaggio with 498 units (23.8%) and in third spot Vespa with 434 sales (20.8%).
View the national sales comparison here, and the top ten by category here.