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Election shares motorcycle sales crash blame

Ducati test ride demo motorcycle sales showroom selling motorcycles pace sales slide common

A continuing downturn in motorcycle sales, as well as car sales, in the first half of the year has been blamed on the Federal election, floods, drought and tight financial lending.

There is little relief from the bleak news with road bike sales suffering the biggest loss of -17.7% as sales of all motorcycles, scooters and ATVs were down 11.4%, according to official figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).Election shares sales crash blame

Honda was the overall market leader with a 24.2% share, despite sales down 11.8%.

It was followed by Yamaha with a 21.1% share (sales -11.2%) and Kawasaki with 10.7% share (sales -3.9%).

Following declining sales reports for motorcycles and cars, FCAI boss Tony Weber said:

Over the past six months we have seen various conditions and circumstances which adversely affected the market.  These include a tightening of financial lending, environmental factors such as drought and flood, and a strongly contested federal election.

Despite the usual concern about elections, motorcycle sales actually slowed their slide from -14.6% in the first quarter, the biggest quarterly negative result since the GFC.

In the aftermath of the election there seems a more buoyant mood in the financial markets, although the global outlook is gloomy against a backdrop of trade wars, Brexit and continuing tensions over North Korea and Iran.

Click here for how global motorcycle sales have been trending.

Sales highlights

The most interesting result in the first half of this year was the massive -28.9% result for Honda road bike sales which crashed to third place behind Harley-Davidson and Yamaha.Election shares sales crash blame

Honda’s crash could be explained by the absence of postie bike sales, which is their staple. It could because Australia Post seems to be switching to electric trikes.

Australia Post postie bike electric trike eDV
Australia Post postie bike electric trike eDV

Interestingly, Harley sales were down another 19.4%, yet they returned to the lead in the road bike sales sector.

The only growth in road bike sales was by KTM which was up 9.1%.

Scooter sales also showed a substantial 18.8% increase after years of slides.

BMW nearly doubled its small sales, Honda was up 74% and Suzuki 48%.Election shares sales crash blame

Missing in action

While the above results are compared with the first half of 2018 with the same brands, it should be noted that 23 minor manufacturers are not included in the official FCAI figures.

They are mainly small-volume importers Norton, Hyosung, VMoto, Benelli, Bimota, Bollini, CFMoto, Confederate, Daelim, EBR, Kymco, Laro, Megelli, Mercury, MV Agusta, Norton, PGO, Royal Enfield, SWM, SYM, TGB, Ural and Viper.

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Election shares sales crash blameElection shares sales crash blameElection shares sales crash blame

  1. so many cagers on electronic devices while driving, more and more dangerous to motorcycles, cycles & pedos, no wonder people not buying motorcycles, many probably throwing in the towel also, Ban mobile phone use in moving vehicles.

  2. I’ve done my bit for my BMW dealer & ordered a R1250RS Exclusive to replace my awesome 2017 R1200R Exclusive 🙂
    Still on the boat from Germany & seriously looking forward to it 😛

  3. It would be interesting to compare the growth/decline of bike sales with those of the larger car market. Although I haven’t done the research, I suspect that both markets have been affected by general consumer sentiment.

  4. Yeah well We’re in recession and have been for a while . Well politicians lie especially when there’s an election on. The reserve bank has dropped interest rates so we may end up in actual deflation,Retirees are getting bugger all on their savings, And a few idiots are still investing in houses. The only thing keeping us going is mineral exports but thats looking shaky because of the trade war between the us and china. And all our manufacturers went offshore years ago. The sudden spike in bike thefts? Probably owners throwing their bikes down mineshafts and claiming the insurance after finding their $40,000 harley isnt quite the ‘investment’ they where told it was and they cant sell it ….The good news?..There isnt any!

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