Australian Motorcycle Sales Figures

2018 Q1 | Jan 1 to March 31

2016 had seen the Australian motorcycle industry start to recover from the doldrums brought on by the GFC with 114,783 sales across all sectors, that’s road, off-road, scooter and ATV. That was a very healthy increase over the 2015 figures, and the fifth highest sales result in the Australian motorcycle industry’s history. 2016 was also the industry’s strongest sales result since 2009.

Unfortunately that upwards trajectory did not continue in 2017. The year started very poorly for most brands, with road bike sales down 15.5 per cent, and the dirtbike market down 15.3 per cent, compared to the first quarter of 2016.  The industry did recover somewhat in Q2 last year but by the end of December the calendar year figures reflected drops similar to what had been recorded in Q1.

Unfortunately, the start to 2018 has been even a little worse than this time last year, well for some brands at least. Thankfully though, overall the decline on those 2017 is not too large, overall we are only 1.2 per cent down overall compared to that terrible start to last year.

21,614 motorcycles, ATVs and scooters were sold during the first three months of 2018, compared with 21,886 for the same period in 2017.

Honda was the overall leader with a 22.5 per cent share of the national market (4863 sales), followed by Yamaha (4192 sales) with 19.4 per cent, and Kawasaki 10.8 per cent with 2334 sales reported.

KTM are the fourth biggest selling brand in Australia with 1821 sales besting Harley’s 1812 and Suzuki’s 1645 units.

Of the major brands the hardest hit were Harley-Davidson and Ducati. The Milwaukee iron down 19.9 per cent and the Bologna bikes down 15.8 per cent.

Road Motorcycle Sales Figures

Across the industry segments, the decline in the road motorcycle category was the most at 2.6 per cent. Within this category, Honda climbed to market leadership with a 21.5 per cent share and actually increased their road bike sales by 6.8 per cent.

In stark contrast, Harley-Davidson, the clear leader in the Australian roadbike market across recent years, has taken a hefty 19.9 per cent hit to their sales. Thus H-D are now the second biggest selling roadbike brand, but still hold 18.9 per cent of the Australian roadbike market.

Yamaha, like Honda, have had a better start to 2018 than 2017. Yamaha roadbike sales were up 6 per cent for a total of 1543.

Kawasaki remain the fourth biggest road bike brand with a 7.7 per cent improvement on 2017 amounting to 1182 road bike sales.

BMW are next best with their 656 road bike sales 6.1 per cent better than this time last year.

Suzuki also were in positive territory, 2.3 per cent better off than 2017 with 629 sales.

Triumph slipped by 8.5 per cent but still recorded 602 sales for seventh overall.

KTM moved past Ducati in road bike sales figures for what I believe is the first time for the Austrian brand. KTM are up 16.4 per cent on 2017 with 384 of the Team Orange machines hitting Australian roads during the first quarter of 2018.

Ducati contracted 15.8 per cent to register 347 sales thus far in 2018.

Indian Motorcycles continue to grow and 2018 has seen a good start to the year for the brand. 227 sales equates to a 47.4 per cent improvement over their start to 2017.

Aprilia picked up off what was a low base during the change over period between importers and the same goes for Moto Guzzi.

Road Motorcycles by Model

The biggest selling road bike in Australia is Honda’s bargain priced CB125E ahead of the NBC110 that is used by Australia Post.

Yamaha’s YZF-R3A is third on the charts ahead of Harley’s XG500 Street.

Fifth, sixth, and eighth are the Yamaha MT triumvirate of MT-07L (233), MT-09 (210) and the MT-03LA (202).

Suzuki’s DR650 took over the mantle of top adventure-tourer once again after knocking Honda’s Africa Twin out of top spot in the category.

Honda’s CBR500R and CBR300R continued to head the ‘Supersport’ charts, (we don’t make the classifications…), but Kawasaki’s Ninja 400 is off to a great start and might peg the Honda pair back in Q2.  Of the ‘proper’ sportsbikes ‘Ducati Superbike’ is listed as top of the charts with 55 sales, what ever ‘Superbike’ that is we don’t know for sure, but we suspect it is the Panigale V4. Ducati also sold 41 of the 1299 Panigale.

BMW sold 42 S 1000 RR machines while the top selling Japanese sportsbike was the CBR1000RR with 35 Fireblades hitting the road ahead of 32 YZF-R1, 31 GSX-R1000 and 30 Ducati Supersports. Kawasaki ZX-10R did not make the ‘Supersport’ Top Ten.

Off-Road Motorcycles Sales Figures

Off-road category sales fell 0.5 per cent compared with the first quarter of 2017. Yamaha maintained its market leadership with a 25.1 per cent share, followed by Honda with 23.3 per cent, and KTM (21.4%).

Yamaha reported 1685 sales during the first quarter of 2018, 2.8 per cent down on the opening three months of 2017.

Honda picked up 6.4 per cent to 1467 sales and KTM also were in positive territory to record 1437 sales.

Kawasak and Suzuki were both in negative territory with 838 and 601 sales respectively.

Off-Road Motorcycles by Model

Underlining that two-strokes are far from dead is the fact that KTM’s 300 EXC topped the overall off-road charts! That is unheard of as traditionally the biggest selling off-road bike is something like a PW50, CRF50F or KLX110. But no, the big ticket 300 EXC topped all comers across every area of the dirtbike market to come out on top overall.

Thus obviously the 300 EXC also topped the Enduro charts ahead of sibling 500 EXC and Yamaha’s WR450F.

Honda took #1 and #2 in motocross sales with the CRF250R and CRF450R ahead of Yamaha’s 450/250 pairing and Kawasaki’s KX250F.

ATV & SSV Sales Figures

The ATV/SSV segment fell by just 0.2 per cent. Polaris was the market leader with a 31 per cent share, followed by Honda with 23.1 per cent and Yamaha (19.9%).

The Polaris Sportsman was the biggest seller ahead of Honda’s TRX420FM and Yamaha’s YFM450FB/P.

Scooter Sales Figures

Scooters defied the market trend with a 2.9 per cent climb in sales during the first quarter. Piaggio held a 28.9 per cent share, followed by Honda with 24.2 per cent and Vespa with 21 per cent.

Piaggio’s FLY150 regained some last ground to move back up to #1 ahead of Honda’s NSC110 and the Vespa GTS 300.