Dealer confidence remains high despite the “pretty underwhelming” registrations for March, says the NMDA.
Steve Latham, NMDA chief, says:
“After all the hype and good vibes about motorcycle registrations in the first two months of the year, we had high hopes for a bumper result this March – the month that starts with the brand-new 16 registration number plate. To our surprise the growth was pretty underwhelming – 230 more bike sales than in 2015, meaning a paltry growth of just 1.4%. This unexciting market growth could be down to product supply shortages of certain models that could well come through with better growth in the next few months.
“In sector terms the sub-50cc market was down 6.9%, registering only 845 machines. Larger bikes over 51cc fared better with 1.9% growth – in March the overall size of this market is naturally large every year as many riders place significance on having the latest registration plate to define their bike purchase and to this end the market recorded sales of 15,664 new machines a growth of 1.9%.
“The combination of these two results left the March market up 1.4%, while the year-to-date figure is up a healthy 7.6%, meaning nearly 2000 more motorcycles have been registered this year.
“Of interest in March, the greatest growth came from the 651-1000cc sector, which was up 9.5%, the best seller, probably down to model run-out, was the Triumph Bonneville, which clocked up 246 registrations in the month.
“As with previous months, Honda led the brands in volume terms with more than 3000 sales, followed by Yamaha which registered nearly 2000 units. BMW was third with 1688 registrations.
“Overall, dealers are still confident that the year as a whole will pan out well for sales around 8% greater than in 2015 but greater growth percentages must be expected in the traditionally quieter months than the plate-change month.”
Â
Â