More than one million motorcycles and mopeds were registered in the EU in the first nine months of 2016, according to the latest statistics from the European manufacturers association ACEM.
Its latest report says at least 1,051,257 powered-two and three-wheelers were registered during the first nine months. This represents an increase of 4.4% compared with the 1,006,684 vehicles registered during the same period of 2015.
Registrations performed positively in all of the key European markets including Italy (+10.3%, 186,464 units), Spain (+9.6%, 127,717 units), UK (+7.3%, 101,408 units), Germany (+2.5%, 168,418 units) and France (+1.1%, 198,513 units). France remains the largest market for powered-two and powered-three wheelers in Europe.
Motorcycle registrations
Cumulative motorcycle registrations grew by 7.2%. A total of 802,767 motorcycles were registered between January and September 2016, against 749,128 during the same period of 2015.
Year-on-year motorcycle registrations increased in all of the largest European markets, including Italy (+12%, 160,602 units), Spain (+10.2%, 114,988 units), UK (+8.7%, 94,807 units), Germany (+4.5%, 143,367 units) and France (+2.1%, 129,835 units).
Moped registrations
At least 248,490 mopeds were registered during the first nine months of 2016 in the EU, while 257,556 had been registered during the same period of 2015. This represents a decrease of 3.5%. Moped registrations increased in Spain (+5%, 12,729 units) and the Netherlands (+2.8%, 55,363 units). They declined in Austria (-0.2%, 12,366 units), France (-0.8%, 58,040 units), Italy (-2.1%, 19,862 units) and Poland (-14.2%, 21,432 units).
ACEM Secretary General Antonio Perlot said: “This third quarter figures clearly show that the powered-two and powered-three wheeler sector continues recovering from the acute economic crisis that started in 2008. We are still far away from the 2.4 million registrations of 2007 but we are optimistic about the future. As the European economy starts to emerge from its long slumber, European citizens will increasingly look for convenient solutions that meet both their mobility and leisure needs.”
This press release was based on information available up to 19 October 2016. At that time motorcycle and moped data for the following countries was not available: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Malta, Romania and Slovenia. Moped data for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Slovakia and Sweden was not available.