Market reports – Motorcycle market: the holidays before their time! –

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Motorcycle market: the holidays before their time !

Market reports - Motorcycle market: the holidays before their time! -

The two-wheeler market has achieved an excellent end of the year with + 40% for the 125 and + 20% in the large-displacement sector compared to November 2004! Balance sheet.

If the little children will still have to wait until December 25 in the morning to discover their gifts, it seems that Santa Claus has taken the lead in his tour by already spoiling the motorcycle salesmen. !

For the month of November, Piaggio and Kawasaki are showing themselves to be particularly fit: the Italian thus consolidates its first place in the kingdom of the 125s, while Yamaha and Suzuki find themselves in an almost perfect tie at the top of the big engines … December promises to be sporty !

Market 125

The 125 cc had an exceptional November with a 41.7% increase in sales compared to November 2004 !

Piaggio, who took the lead in the sector last month (read our), drives home the point and maintains its pace of October when the majority of its direct opponents are stalling. "LX release blew up Vespa sales"confides the group’s press officer to Moto-Net,"this release notably made the registrations of the Granturismo take off". The Italian firm thus manages to place four of its scooters in the ten best monthly sales and begins the final sprint with a head start over Honda: 18,302 sales against 17,441.

The second transalpine manufacturer, Aprilia, is also doing well and has a particularly satisfying month of November (+ 46.4% compared to November 2004).

The Japanese giant suffered the blow and struggled to exceed its sales in November 2004. Its spearhead, the XL125 Varadero, ran out of steam while the rest of the 125 range failed to seduce … perhaps for lack of ‘originality. Yet, seeing the new PS125i (read), Honda executives seem to preach continuity and sobriety. Winning bet ?

For its part, Yamaha continues to benefit from these two perfectly complementary bestsellers – the Majesty and the YBR – which are respectively at the top and in fourth place of the best sales last month. Over the past eleven months, the Yamaha scooter leads by a hundred units in front of the Piaggio X8 and the whole brand in tuning forks has achieved an increase in sales of 18% compared to last year, i.e. the progression most important in this sector among the leaders.

Once again, Daelim explodes the stats (+ 740%!) … going from 25 to 210 sales between November 2004 and November 2005. Without drawing any hasty or distorted conclusions, the days of the Daystar are well and truly over. . It remains to be seen how far sales of Korean will be able to progress !

On the French side, MBK and Peugeot are on an equal footing, but are the only ones with Suzuki not to improve their figures compared to 2004 (respectively -16.3% and -3.5%). Will the 125 cc versions of the Peugeot Satelis and Geopolis make it possible to reverse the trend? Answer in a few months…

For the second consecutive month, Suzuki’s Burgman 125 misses the top 10, causing the Japanese brand to fall in the ranking: 9th behind the two French, Taiwanese Kymco and Korean Daelim.

Market over 125

After a positive October (+ 11.3%), the large-engine market saw a further increase in speed and reached the + 20% mark.

For the first time this year, Kawasaki obtains results worthy of a start-up and is at the top of French sales with an incredible + 111.4%! The Greens are indeed benefiting from the excellent sales of the Z750, the indestructible ER-5 but above all from the successful launch of its new ER-6n model (read), even if the sales of the new roadster do not appear in the official data. which only offer cumulative sales by model since January 2005.

Contacted by Moto-Net, Kawasaki France confirms that "the eagerly awaited ER-6n got off to a strong start: 805 registrations during the first two months of marketing. A result which, without excessive self-satisfaction, can be qualified as excellent, given the fact that the first deliveries of this model were somewhat delayed and thwarted due to the strikes on the storage platforms of the port of Marseille where they transit when they arrive in Europe. The 414 sales in November would place it in 2nd position – behind its "big brother" Z750 – if the official figures took into account the monthly results and not the number of cumulative sales since January. ". As for the + 111.6%, they are obviously to be put into perspective given"that at the same time last year, Kawa did not have such a novelty".

At the same time, the fight for the number one place in 2005 continues between Yamaha and Suzuki. Only eight sales separate them after a tough battle of eleven months and it will be necessary to wait for the photo finish to decide between them…

Regarding sales by model, if the Fazer does not keep up with the frantic pace of the Z750 – 544 sales – (read), it still distances itself from the Bandit 650 (read). As for the T-Max, the only maxi-scooter to compete with motorcycles, its sales are maintained at the level of those of its peripheral comrades: the CB600F and BMW R 1200RT (read), ie 142 sales for the scooter, 148 for the Japanese and 155 for the German. The month of November also marks the return of the R1 (110 sales) which replaces the GSX-R 1000 (100).

If the Honda CB600F (read) maintains its fourth place, the world number one ends the year in freewheeling and has only represented 11.7% of the French market this last month. The redesign of its models does not seem to draw the crowds and does not announce anything extraordinary for the beginning of 2006. Unless there is an offensive on the prices ?

For the third month in a row, BMW has had a disappointing month compared to 2004. Nothing detrimental, however, since the cumulative eleven months the Bavarian manufacturer shows sales up 11.8%. Main source of this success: the new 1200RT which exceeded its target of 2000 sales for two months (read).

At the end of the year, motorcycles with "character" still appeal to the French, as demonstrated by the good results of Triumph (+ 78.4%), Harley-Davidson (+ 52.6%) and Ducati (+18 , 4%).

But cumulatively, it is Triumph and Harley who are preparing to sign a superb year, respectively increasing their sales by + 56.6% and + 20.7% when those of Ducati and KTM – despite their new models acclaimed by the press and bikers themselves – growing only 3.6% and 5.9%, for an overall market expanding 5.9%.

Aprilia (114 sales) is aiming for tenth place, taking advantage of Piaggio’s drop. At the same time, Moto Guzzi sold 69 motorcycles, Husqvarna and Kymco 43 each and Voxan still barely with only 7 sales. Will the end-of-year offer from the French manufacturer (read) help boost sales and launch the machine? Answer next month…

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