THE BMF and the MCIA have reported that UK motorcycle sales fell by 11.6% in the month of June. The drop saw new bike sales of 9,248.
Scooters also saw a drop in sales of 12.5% down to 1,790, after previously holding a 16.5% gain made earlier in the year.
Sales of bikes from 650-1000cc saw a drop of 19.5%, with small capacity bikes (50-125cc) falling by 12.7%. The only band of bikes to see any growth is the 126-650cc bracket, which saw a measly 1% growth.
While 2019 had thus far been a good year for motorcycle sales and registrations, these new figures have seen many gains abruptly lost. Growth in registrations for all powered two-wheelers has now dropped back to just 2.9% year-on-year after having previously hit 7%, with motorcycles as a whole down to just 1.1%.
The news comes just a few months on from our April report that showed the EU motorcycle industry to be in a very different place, after new bike sales across Europe reversed recent trends. We reported a big rise during the first quarter of 2019, while the UK posted more positive results despite fears over Brexit.
Bike sales were bolstered in 2019 after a tricky end to 2018, which few people saw as possible of improvement coming into this year. Despite this, Q1 sales across Europe grew by around 20% with impressive gains being registered in France (+31%), Germany (+22%) and Italy especially (17%).
so far in 2019, every nation in the European Community Zone apart from Greece (down 2%) posted gains between January and March, with Poland enjoying a huge surge of an 87% increase. The Central European nation, together with Romania, Hungary. Lithuania and Slovakia, each managed more than 50% gains.
The European and UK sales reports now seem to be following the global trend, which has sales slipping by 5% overall, with drops in India and China being stated as the cause.
