A surge in consumer activity during the final quarter of 2016 generated a strong finish to the sales year for Australia’s new motorcycle market, with the calendar year result up 6.6 per cent on 2015.
Australia’s motorcycle, ATV and scooter sales reached a total of 114,783 in 2016 — an increase of 7,073 units over 2015 and posting the fifth highest sales result in the industry’s history.
It was also the industry’s strongest sales result since 2009.
Honda was the largest selling brand again, holding 22.9 per cent (26,276 units) of the total motorcycle, ATV and scooter market.
Close behind in second place was Yamaha with 21.7 per cent of the total market (24,899). Kawasaki was third with 9.2 per cent (10,592 sales), Harley-Davidson fourth with 9 per cent (10,282 sales) and Suzuki fifth with 8.6 per cent (9,924 sales).
Road bike sales were again healthy across the industry, increasing 5.3 per cent over the 2015 result and accounting for 41.6 per cent of the total market. Australians rode home with a total of 47,753 new road bikes in 2016.
Harley-Davidson took out the top sales position in the road bike category. The Milwaukee (USA) based manufacturer sold 10,282 new road bikes across Australia in 2016 to claim a leading segment share of 21.5 per cent.
Honda was the second highest selling brand in this category, with 20.2 per cent of national road bike sales (9,651). Honda was followed by Yamaha with 16.3 per cent (7,768 sales), Kawasaki with 10.1 per cent (4,798) and BMW with 6.7 per cent (3,178).
Off-road motorcycle purchases accounted for almost 35 per cent of total market with 39,710 sales. The popularity of this segment grew at a slightly higher rate than that of road bikes in 2016, with the 39,710 off-road sales for 2016 representing a 6.3 per cent increase on 2015 figures.
Yamaha again led the market for off-road motorcycles, selling 30.5 per cent (12,090) of the total number sold in this segment. Yamaha was followed by Honda with 24.8 per cent (9,848 sales), KTM with 17.7 per cent (7,023), Kawasaki with 11.0 per cent (4,382) and Suzuki with 10.3 per cent (4,081).
The ATV market grew by a solid 14.4 per cent over 2015, with a total of 22,834 ATVs sold nationally in 2016. ATV sales represented 19.9 per cent of the total motorcycle market.
Polaris was the leading ATV brand with a 26.4 per cent share, or 6,037 sales. Honda was second with 25.5 per cent (5,832 sales), Yamaha was third with 20.5 per cent (4,692), BRP fourth with 11.1 per cent (2,524) and Suzuki fifth with 10.2 per cent (2,337).
Scooters continued their decline in popularity with total sales in this segment of 4,486, down 11.0 per cent on 2015.
Italian-based manufacturer Piaggio remained the segment leader market with a 24.0 per cent share (1,075 sales), followed by Vespa in second place with 21.8 per cent (977 sales), Honda third with 21.1 per cent (945 sales), Suzuki fourth with 8.5 per cent (382 sales) and Aprilia fifth with 8.3 per cent (373 sales). Scooter sales accounted for 3.9 per cent of the total 2016 motorcycle market.