The Italian powered two-wheeler market, once by far the biggest in Europe with more than half a million sales annually before the financial crisis, plummeted to roughly twice the size of its UK equivalent in 2013. According to latest statistics from Italian bike industry association ANCMA, total PTW sales in Italy during last year dropped by 27.3 per cent to 185,511 units.
Registered over-50cc scooters fell by 31.3 per cent to 101,109 units. However, that number wasn’t entirely reflective of retail sales as it included Piaggio fleet provision to the Italian Post Office. (The scooter exit data for 2012 had also concealed an even larger volume of similar fleet deliveries.) Motorcycle registrations were down by 11.1 per cent to 52,754 units. The unregistered 50cc moped sector suffered most with a 35.1 per cent decline to 31,648 units.