The latest Motorcycle industry Association statistics are out for April 2014, and for the second month in a row they show positive growth versus the same month in the previous year. Last month new two wheel sales were up 16.1% on April 2013 with 9864 new registrations in total, up from 8497 units the previous year.
The moped category however did see another drop in sales, with a 1.3% drop in new units registered falling from 851 last April to 840 this April. That leaves the category down 4.8% this year overall. However the motorcycle category saw very strong growth with an 18% rise in the number of new units registered, equivalent to a total of 1378 additional units (total 9864) sold.
The biggest rises came via Touring and Naked bike models, which saw a 48.9% (129 units) and 44.5% (715 units) increase in new unit registrations respectively. Custom bikes also saw a 22% rise, and Supersport bikes saw a 19.5% rise in new unit sales.
The biggest selling machine of the month was the Honda PCX125 (pictured) which saw 196 registrations in April, closely followed by the Honda CBF125M which saw 188 registrations. The following is a breakdown of the biggest selling models by style:
- Adventure Sport – BMW R1200GS
- Custom – Harley-Davidson Sportster N883
- Naked – Honda CBF125M
- Scooter – Honda PCX125
- Sport Touring – Kawasaki Z1000SX
- Supersport – Yamaha YZFR125
- Touring – BMW R1200RT
- Trail & Enduro – Honda CRF250L
April 2014 did see a drop in registrations for the 0 – 50cc (1.1% – 9 units) and 126 – 650cc (2.5% – 33 units) engine bands, although an 18.9% increase in registrations for 51 – 125cc bikes hopefully suggests a rise in first time riders getting involved with motorcycling, which can only be good news for the UK trade. The strongest growth came in the 651 – 1000cc engine band with a 26.7% increase in new unit registrations this April, followed by a 23.7% rise for machines over 1000cc.
The biggest selling manufacturers in April 2014 were also as follows:
- Honda – 1652 Units
- Yamaha – 1298 Units
- Triumph – 946 Units
- BMW – 736 Units
- Kawasaki – 610 Units
- Harley-Davidson – 513 Units
It’s still too early in the year to tell if this is a long term trend or a response to the better weather we have been having so far in 2014 versus the same time a year ago, but it’s very positive none the less and we await the next month of figures with great anticipation!
