September is normally a good month for new motorcycle registrations as the new wave of number plates hit the market, but the UK saw some very impressive growth in sales last month according to recent figures.
Overall, registrations were up 17.3% against September 2015, equivalent to more than 2,300 additional new bikes sold. Moped sales were down once again, -9.6% for the month, but sales of larger capacity scooters and motorcycles actually increased by an impressive 20%.
In percentage terms, the biggest growth came in the Trail & Enduro market where registrations increased by 38.4%, with sales of larger capacity Scooters and Naked style machines also rising by 34.9% and 33.3% respectively. Sport Touring bike sales also jumped 29.8% for the month, and Adventure Sport registrations grew by 9.9%. Other segments did see a fall in sales including Custom machines (-8.8%), Touring (-11%) and Supersport (-2.5%).
Apart from the 0 – 50cc engine band, which saw registration fall by -8.4%, all other bands saw an increase in sales during September. The sales of learner legal 51 – 125cc machines rose by 10.6%, whereas sales of A2 licence legal 126 – 650cc machines jumped a whopping 41.7%. The sales of 651 – 1000cc bikes increased by 8% compared with September of last year, and registrations of bikes above 1000cc saw an impressive 35.9% rise.
The UK’s biggest selling brand was Honda, whose dealers sold 2,603 new units in September. Yamaha dealers shared 1,965 new bike sales between them, and BMW jumped up the league table into third place with 1,510. Behind them were Triumph (1,286), followed by a resurgent Suzuki (1,141), then Kawasaki (1,123) and Lexmoto (934).
The top selling bike of the month was the BMW R1200GS, with 370 happy new customers across the UK taking delivery of the big ADV machine.
By style the top selling bikes were as follows:
- Adventure Sport – BMW R1200GS
- Custom – Harley-Davidson Sportster N883
- Naked – Honda CB125F
- Scooter – Honda PCX125
- Sport Touring – Kawasaki ER-6F
- Supersport – Yamaha YZF-R125 ABS
- Touring – BMW R1200RT
- Trail & Enduro – Suzuki RV125 VanVan
With figures for the final quarter of the year still to come, the UK market has already passed the 100,000 unit barrier – sitting at a grand total of 101,415 new 2-wheelers sold in the first 9 months of the year.
That’s a 7.3% rise to the end of September, a little below the MCIA predication of around 10%, but given all the recent upheaval, it’s still a very positive picture!
