SUNSHINE BONUS FOR JUNE REGISTRATIONS

Absolutely glorious summer weather throughout the month was undoubtedly a pivotal factor in lifting the market out of stagnation as we reached this year’s halfway point.

Latest MCIA data for June highlighted a 7.8% overall rise to 13,089 registrations. Motorcycles were 10% up to 10,463 and scooters rose by 5.4% to 2046. Mopeds remained a basket case, 15.1% down to just 517 machines. However, the 50cc sector’s rate of decline slowed, suggesting sell-through of preregistered Euro 3 models is now over.

Such good fortune has to be qualified as only half the story, though, because it was confined to cheaper small and medium-capacity products. The 51-650cc band stacked on strong 22.8% recovery to 6090 units. But 651cc-plus kit representing a much bigger slice of dealer revenue still languished in negativity, 1.5% down to 6460. It was also notable that Adventure Sport tackle, mostly occupying that top-end territory and a key style category driver for several years, seems to have gone right off the boil. June’s almost non-existent growth was a mere 0.1% — three extra bikes.

Performance from major brands was mixed. Honda maintained domination with a 5.6% rise but runner-up Yamaha was 3.8% down. BMW and Triumph in respective third and fourth spots were close on numbers — although the former added 4.7% while the latter only managed a negligible 0.3% increase. Kawasaki, empowered by a particularly attractive 2018 range, continued its resurgence in fifth place with a muscular 24.2% gain.

Star turns lower down the top-ten running order were KTM in eighth boasting 51.6% growth and Harley-Davidson 10.1% up in seventh. Suzuki was sixth but its rate of recovery had shrivelled to just a 2.4% improvement. Ducati in ninth did slightly better than that, adding 3%. Lexmoto rounded out top-10 rankings, having done better than in June last year, when it dropped off the list completely. Piaggio was this June’s vanishing act.

For the six months of 2018 to date, total registrations were a thin 2% up to 57,784. Motorcycles have grown by 3.8% to 45,301 and scooters by 2.1% to 9683. Mopeds were 21.5% in arrears at 2444 and tricycles have lost 16.6% to 356.