There seems to be no sign of a slowdown in the new motorcycle market in the UK right now, as registrations rose by 14.2% in October when compared with the same month in 2014.
Sales of new motorcycles and scooters were actually up 19.3% for the month, equivalent to 1,249 additional units sold, but moped sales were down by 19.7%, or 190 fewer units.
There was a big percentage rise in the sale of Sport Touring bikes, 43.5% in total, but this actually only equated to 87 more units sold than in October 2014. There was a 39% growth in the sale of Adventure bikes, 22.3% growth in the sale of Naked bikes, and 21.9% for Custom machines too. Scooter sales grew by 18.8%, whilst Supersport and Trail/Enduro sales rose slightly, by 4.3% and 4.5% respectively. Only the Touring segment saw a fall this month, with a 31.9% drop in sales, equating to 68 fewer bikes sold.
The 0 – 50cc engine band saw a fall similar to that seen in the moped sector, dropping 19.1% for the month. The learner legal 51 – 125cc engine band was up 20.2%, close to 800 additional units. The A2 licence 126 – 650cc engine band saw an 11.8% rise in sales, whereas sales of 651 – 1000cc machines were up 32.7%. Sales to machines over 1000cc also grew in October, by 9.4% when compared with the same month in 2014.
Honda was the top selling manufacturer as always, with 1,365 new bikes sold. Yamaha came a close 2nd with 1,208 new machines registered. Lexmoto occupy the 3rd place spot for the second month in a row, selling 841 of their bikes, followed by Triumph with 442, Harley-Davidson with 412, Kawasaki with 406 and BMW with 377.
The top selling bike of the month was the Honda PCX125 scooter, with 201 registered in October. The top selling bikes by style were as follows:
- Adventure Sport – Yamaha MT-09 Tracer
- Custom – Harley-Davidson Street XG750
- Naked – Yamaha MT125
- Scooter – Honda PCX125
- Sport Touring – Kawasaki Z1000SX
- Supersport – Yamaha YZFR125 ABS
- Touring – Yamaha FJR1300
- Trail & Enduro – Honda CRF250L
With two months left to report for 2015, bike sales are up by 11,301 units when compared with the same time last year. Even better, predictions from the MCIA suggest that sales should hit 124,000 units in 2016!
