Scooter demand slows October motorcycle sales dip, Yamaha big winner

Strong demand in the scooter sector slowed the dip in motorcycle sales during the month of October, keeping the industry on course for an overall growth across the 12 months.

After a big surge in month-on-month sales in September to coincide with the switch to the ‘69’ registration plate, sales returned to more familiar levels in October with a total of 7126 motorcycles, scooters and trikes registered.

‘Big bikes’ accounted for 6481 of these sales but this alone was a 4% drop year-on-year compared with October 2018. By contrast, however, scooter and moped sales rose by 23.6%. Overall, October 2019 motorcycle sales were down year-on-year but only 1.8% in total.

Overall, sales for the year – with two months remaining – sit at 96,409 units sold meaning compared with 94,523 for the first ten months of 2018, a 2% rise that should ensure the industry sees a small but positive growth by the end of December.

Best-selling motorcycles in the UK for October 2019

Broken down into categories, Adventure Sport and Naked motorcycles registered 21% and 5.7% slips year-on-year to account for the overall dip, whereas other categories enjoyed slight increases to help offset it.

The best-selling motorcycle overall was the Yamaha NMAX 125 scooter, which ends the reign of the Honda PCX 125 scooter at the top of the sales charts with 247 units being shifted in October.

Honda remains the best-selling brand overall, however, with a comfortable margin over its opposition with a 1224 motorcycles sold to Yamaha’s 820 units. Interestingly, though Honda didn’t top any of the sales categories with the Yamaha Tenere 700 leading the way in the Adventure Sport class, while the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 was the best-selling Naked.

In terms of overall brands, Yamaha rose to second while Lexmoto – on the back of the healthy scooter sales – is classified as the third largest motorcycle company for the month of October. KTM and BMW also enjoyed positive months, pushing homegrown Triumph down to sixth from Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki, Piaggio and Royal Enfield.

October 2019 UK Motorcycle Sales Data