Latest sales figures for July from Italian bike industry association ANCMA offer a glimmer of hope in the motorcycle market, with monthly sales down by only three per cent to 6399 units. But Italy’s much larger domestic scooter and mopeds markets continue to plummet.
Registered scooter sales for the month fell by 21 per cent to 13,716 units. However, real decline was considerably steeper because 6000 fleet sales to the Italian Post Office in July last year had been discounted from the data. The 50cc moped sector was more severely savaged, dropping by 39 per cent to 4490 units.
For the seven months of 2013 to date, total powered two-wheeler sales in Italy have fallen by 26 per cent to 132,751 units — and that comparison should be much worse too, because some 15,600 Post Office scooters had actually been subtracted from the 2012 YTD figures.Â