UK Motorcycle Sales: Double digit growth, Royal Enfield star in June

Sales of motorcycles in the UK continued their upward trend in June, lifting year to date sales up to a huge growth of 31% at the mid-way stage of 2021.

With June 2020 signalling the easing of the first lengthy lockdown and June 2021 getting towards ‘normality’ following the latest restriction measures, the two months provide a relatively even like-for-like comparison.

However, as with March, April and May, sales of ‘Powered Two Wheelers’ (PTW) continued to grow into the summer months with overall gains of 11.2% over the same period a year earlier, according to the MCIA.

In total, 14,863 PTWs found homes in June 2021, compared with 13,361 PTWs in June 2020.

It strengthens what is already a sizeable gain over 2020 - when the market was hit badly by the closing of dealerships for two months because of COVID-19 - to growth of 31.4% year-on-year. It means 58,105 PTWs have been sold during the first half of 2021, compared with 44,206 in 2020.

The electric sector continued its vast growth with June 2021 alone seeing a 155.2% gain on June 2020, allowing for a 210.3% gain in the year to date.

The biggest selling motorcycles in the UK for June 2021

Honda, as ever, maintained its comfortable position at the top of the sales charts with 2,661 models flying out of the showrooms in June, well clear of Yamaha in second on 1,901 units sold.

Yamaha is coming increasingly under threat for its usually safe second spot with both BMW and Triumph posting good months with 1,464 and 1,278 models sold, the latter firm continuing to do great business off the back of the popular Trident 660.

Kawasaki rounds out the top five from Lexmoto, KTM, Ducati, Royal Enfield and Suzuki completing the top ten.

Indeed, arguably the stand out performer of the month was Royal Enfield, who topped two segments - Custom and Modern Classic - with the brand-new Meteor 350 performing well in its first months to lead the former and the Interceptor yet again leading the latter.

The biggest-selling PTW was the Yamaha NMAX 125, while the Honda CBF 125 M was the best-selling motorcycle. Of the 600cc and higher, the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure rules the roost, though it is closely challenged by the new Yamaha Tracer 9.