The Coronavirus crisis enforced brands like BMW, Ducati, KTM, Yamaha and Harley-Davidson to postpone their activities. The measure was put in place to protect the employees from the spread of the virus. The motorcycle segment had a fall in sales according to Motorcycles Data and figures could go down even more.
Italy
The motorcycle sales figures were up by 9.3% at the end of February with a volume of 36,489 units sold until the manufacturers had to close their production lines and postpone their dealerships activities starting from the mid of March due to the COVID-19. In the first months, motorcycles sales have decreased by 58.3% and official data reported a market fell of 25% in the first 10 days of March and sales figures sitting at 0. The forecast estimates a total 2020 motorcycle sales figure around 185,000 units by the end of the year. The production could fully recover starting from August.
France
Commercial activities are shut down in France and motorcycles dealers are closed for the past 15 days. It’s estimated that they’ll remain closed between 45 and 75 days. In the first two months of the year, the motorcycle market had an increase in sales of 9.8% with 40,463 units sold. It’s estimated that the motorcycle market sales could reach a decline of 41.9% with an estimated 179,260 motorcycles sold by the end of the year.
Spain
The country was also heavily affected by the Coronavirus outbreak and all commercial activities had to stop to protect the employees from the spread of the virus. At the end of February, the motorcycle market had an 11.8% increase in sales with a total of 29,187 units. The projected motorcycle sales figures could be down 44% by the end of 2020 with a total sales figure of 113,567.
Good riddance! Motorbikes should be banned anyway. At least the noisy and annoying gas bikes.