2019 Motorcycle Sales Figures | Australia Q1 Sales Data

Motorcycles Sales Figures

Australia – 2019 Q1 Motorcycle Sales Data

There is little good news to report from the latest quarterly sales update issued this week by the FCAI. Overall the market is down 14.6 per cent compared to this time last year, and as a whole sales are down around 30 per cent since 2016.

18,438 motorcycles, ATVs and scooters were sold during the first three months of 2019, compared with 21,599 for the same period in 2018

Honda was the overall leader with a 21.8 per cent share of the national market, followed by Yamaha with 20.8 per cent and Kawasaki with 11.8 per cent.

Motorcycles Sales Data Notes

It should be noted that some brands are not represented in the official audit figures in relation to motorcycle sales. Brands under the UMI group such as MV Agusta, Royal Enfield and Gas Gas, along with the likes of Sherco, CF Moto, Kymco and SWM which come under the stewardship of Mojo Motorcycles, are not included in the sales figures as these companies are not members of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

An educated guesstimate suggests that these brands represent around 10 per cent of the whole market, thus the data is formulated from audited figures that cover around 90 per cent of the motorcycles sold in Australia.

Along with compiling motorcycles sales data, the FCAI is the primary organisation funded by the motorcycle industry to deal with government agencies. FCAI helped lobby for the Learner Approved Motorcycles Scheme and the Recreational Registration Scheme. They also lobby for exemptions on tightening emissions schemes in relation to motorcycles, and helping to prevent governments trying to restrict or ban the use of ATVs.

2019 Q1 Motorcycle Sales Data

Including Road, Dirt, ATV and Scooter
2019 First Quarter compared to Q1 2018

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Road Motorcycle Sales

Road bike sales experienced a hefty 19.2 per cent downturn. This equates to almost 2000 less motorcycles hitting the road in the first quarter of this year compared to 2018.

While Honda has done well this quarter in regards to dirt-bike and scooter sales, they have taken a big hit to their road market share, with sales down 37.9 per cent. In fairness, Big Red did have a killer start to 2018, but still, almost 800 less Honda road bikes have hit the road in the first quarter of 2019 compared to 2018.

Thus despite their own further 17.8 per cent reduction in sales, Harley-Davidson are once again the biggest selling road going motorcycles in Australia, with a 19.1 per cent share of the road bike market.

Yamaha fared better with only an 8 per cent decline in road sales, good enough to move them up to #2 in the road bike rankings, ahead of Honda. Yamaha with 18.2 per cent of the road motorcycle market and Honda with a share of 16.6 per cent.

Kawasaki and Suzuki were down a similar amount to Yamaha, and rank fourth and fifth respectively in regards to road bike volume.

BMW come in just behind Suzuki on road sales but are down 22.9 per cent compared to Q1 2018 and remain the leading European brand in Australia. Triumph are down by a similar amount to seventh while KTM continued to out-do Ducati in the Australian market. The Austrian brand down 10.2 per cent while Ducati fell by 14.4 per cent.

Indian round out the top ten ahead of newcomer to the road market Husqvarna.

Every single brand experienced a contraction in the first quarter of 2019 compared to the sales figures from the first three months of 2018.

2019 Road Motorcycle Sales
2019 First Quarter compared to Q1 2018

Off-Road Motorcycle Sales

Yamaha is pretty much level pegging with last year in relation to dirtbike sales and retain the #1 spot while Honda increased their off-road sales by 3 per cent.

The rest of the brands though had no good news to report and overall the off-road sector is down by 9.3 per cent.

Husqvarna and KTM have come off what had been a fast boil for the Austrian brands, down 29.8 and 23.3 per cent respectively.

Kawasaki are down 12.3 per cent while Suzuki was trimmed by 9.4 per cent.

Yamaha maintained its market leadership with a 27.8 per cent share, followed by Honda with 26.4 per cent, and KTM with 18.1 per cent.

2019 Off-Road Motorcycle Sales
2019 First Quarter compared to Q1 2018

Scooter Sales

Over the last few years scooters had taken a dramatic hit in recent times there has been somewhat of a resurgence with the scooter market clawing ground back to the tune of 29.6 per cent. 1353 scooters were sold in the first quarter of 2019 compared to 1044 hitting the road in Q1 2018.

Honda and Suzuki have made great strides in lifting their scooter sales with Honda by far now the market leader afte doubling their sales to 495, while Suzuki almost tripled their scooter sales to 200.

Honda hold a 36.6 per cent share, followed by Piaggio with 17.1 per cent and Vespa with 16.6 per cent in this segment.

2019 Scooter Sales
2019 First Quarter compared to Q1 2018

ATV Sales

The biggest hit was to ATV sales. This is somewhat predictable off the back of drought conditions experienced throughout much of Australia.

ATV sales are down by almost 1000, from 4211 over the first quarter of 2018, down to 3213 this year. The biggest drops, percentage wise, were experienced by Suzuki (-43.4%), Honda (-35.7%) and Yamaha (-29.6%).

The ATV/SSV category overall showed a decline of 23.7 per cent. Within this category, Polaris maintained market leadership with a 31.2 per cent share, followed by Honda with 19.5 per cent, and Yamaha with 18.4 per cent.

Top Ten Selling Motorcycles in Australia
Q1 2019