December motorcycle sales stable ending 2022 on 1.9% growth
New motorcycle registrations held on in December, to end 2022 with slight growth in the two-wheeled sector
OVERALL 2022 was a tricky year for the motorcycle industry, as it battled changing legislation, chip shortages, and uncertainty around events.
2022 also played out against a backdrop of significant growth in the sector, after 2020 and 2021 showed significant growth as people shunned conventional means of commuting in the wake of the pandemic.
That growth waned somewhat in 2022 though, and for the first time in a long time, it looked as though the market might be slowing down. Despite this, registration statistics from the MCIA show that overall 2022 was some growth, with new registrations up by 1.9 percent when compared to 2021.
In total, 5,435 new motorcycles were registered in December 2022, compared with 5,449 in December 2021. This helped maintain the market’s position in 2022, ending the year with 108,510 new motorcycle registrations, compared to 106,372 in the previous year. If you include mopeds and trikes into that total, the bottom line number for 2022 was 116,534 compared with 114,371 in 2021.
Unsurprisingly, the BMW R 1250 GS was the biggest seller in the adventure bike category, meaning there were 110 difficult-to-wrap Christmas presents dotted about the country. Royal Enfield’s Hunter 350 took top honours in the modern classic sector with 50 bikes registered. The Honda CBF 125 M has been the top-seller in the standard, also called the naked class, for a long time, and it’s a position it refused to relinquish last month, with 129 bikes registered. The highest registering powered two-wheeler (PTW) of all in the final month of 2022 was the Honda PCX 125, ending the year on 263 registration in December.
Speaking about the end-of-year report, Tony Campbell, CEO of MCIA said:
“2022 has proven to be another great year for the industry, MCIA will continue to work closely with the UK Government on delivering the action plan launched early in 2022, which includes the licence review that is one of the ten key actions agreed with Government in the action plan. 2023 will be another encouraging year for the sector where we are expecting further growth on what was already a good year in 2022 which will see further expansion of battery electric products and other new technologies to the market”.
Best middleweight naked motorcycles for newer riders
Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
