Motorcycle sales in the UK continue their upward trend.  The UK’s Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) says that powered two-wheelers’ sales and registrations are up by 21.6% in October.

Year over year, almost all segments of powered two-wheeler sales and registrations are up significantly.  All segments except for touring and sport-touring are up double digits.  Supersport, Adventure sport, Scooter, and Naked machines lead the way with year-over-year increases of 35.1%, 30.1%, 25.7%, and 23.7%, respectively.   On the other side of the coin, touring and sport/tour bikes’ sales have fallen 16.7% and 5.1%.

Monthly year-over-year sales are up significantly.  But there’s still a way to go to meet last year’s full sales numbers. Image credit: MCIA

Unfortunately, the picture is not yet completely rosy.  Year to date, 2020’s powered two-wheeler sales are less than 2019’s sales by 6.9%.  Nearly all powered two-wheeler segments are down, except for scooter sales.  They are already up 7.4% from last year.

So there’s still a long way to go for 2020’s numbers to meet or exceed last year’s figures.  But given the extreme impact of COVID on manufacturing worldwide, it’s quite an accomplishment that powered two-wheeler sales are this good.

You may recall that some manufacturers were predicting a sales apocalypse during the onset of the pandemic.  Early on, many sales figures were down more than 30% with worse results forecast.

It’s interesting to note that the scooter segment is the only powered two-wheeler segment that is up for the full year.  This seems to indicate that people have and are turning to scooters for their commutes in place of public transport.  It will be interesting to see whether the larger powered-two wheeler segments can post gains in 2020, even with the impact of COVID.

Time will tell.

Vezi sursa