UK: 2009 Motorcycles Sales Down The Crapper |
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File under Statistics
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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It was an obvious conclusion from the last few months of sales figures in the UK: 2009 was going to be a really bad year for the motorcycle industry in the UK.
And the 2009 MCIA  figures don't disappoint, or in fact, they really do.
Sales of PTWPowered Two Wheel - motorcyles, scooters, mopeds (motorcycles, scooters and mopeds) was down 20% overall during 2009! A total of 111,513 new units were sold during the year (compared to 139,715 during 2008). But things aren't as bad as they seem. About half of new registrations were for mopeds (60% of these mopeds were cheap knock-offs from Asia). The remainder were for real motorcycles and scooters, meaning that in the above 50cc category, things weren't as bleak as they appear. Naked motorcycles did the best, and actually achieved an increase of 25.4% in their market share. Naked motorcycles sold as many as they did the year previously, so pretty good.
Second highest sales went to supersport bikes, taking a 20% market share, while scooters grab the third spot with 18%. The good old dual-sport adventure motorcycle category was pushed down to 4th place.
According to government statistics, motorcycles are still very popular for commuting. There are about 1.5 million active riders in the UK, 52% of them use the motorcycle for commuting (the recorded average is 80 miles per week).
So far, the UK government has not used a scrappage scheme to promote the sales of new motorcycles as have other European countries (with success). For that, they need to have an interest in the well being of their citizens.....
Via: MCIA
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