Despite the GFC, we seem to have dodged a significant bullet in terms of the effect of the world-wide recession and its effect on motorcycle sales. I bought AMCN this week and the figures they have posted are most interesting. If you haven’t bought the mag and you are interested in the industry side of things, go out and get it and read for yourself. Here’s a quick precis.
Overall, sales of new motorcycles fell by 13.8% over the similar period in 2008. That’s pretty serious, but nothing like the US, for example, where sales fell by 44%, yes, that’s right, nearly 50%. Total sales in Oz for 2009 was 115981 units compared to 134279 in 2008. In the US, total sales dropped by 337580 units, a huge loss.
By manufacturer it can be seen that all the leading brands took a hit. Honda’s sales dropped by 22.1%, including a 50.9% drop in sales of the Fireblade, a very worrying stat indeed. Kawasaki’s sales delcined 14.4%, Yamaha was down 9.7% and Suzuki did best with only a 7.2% loss. Yamaha took the honours for the highest overall sales with 19784 units, Honda next with 17316 (sales of the “postie” are never included in these stats), Suzuki 13699 and Kawasaki 9133. Harley scored 6830
As a sidebar, it should be noted just how hard the GFC bit the manufacturers. There were fewer bikes built in Japan last year than any time in the last 50 years. 660000 units were produced in total, half the number made in 2008 and fewer than the 880629 produced in 1959. Since 1960, Japanese production has never dropped below 1 million. And, in the early 1980’s, Japan produced nearly 7.5 MILLION bikes per year.