Motorcycle sales in France have taken a hit in June, 2022, after selling only a total of 20, 395 units. This marks a 20.8-percent drop versus the same period in 2021. The sluggish sales figures seem to be persisting despite this year's riding season already being in full swing. Interestingly, it appears that fewer people have turned to buying brand new bikes, especially in the middleweight and scooter segments.
Adding to the figure, just a hair over 5,000 three-wheeled scooters were sold, as well, also a decline versus the same period last year—24 percent, to be exact, and a 3.8-percent decline for the period of January to June, as well. As for motorcycles, the entry-level segment, with displacements ranging from 125cc to 499cc, saw slight growth, however, other segments, particularly the 500cc to 750cc, as well as the 750cc to 900cc classes all suffered declines in excess of 10 percent. Nonetheless, in the middleweight segment, the Yamaha MT-07 was the most popular, with a total of 2,528 units sold from January to June.
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It's interesting to note that big bore, high-performance machines with displacements higher than 1,000cc were the only segment of motorcycling that actually saw some growth, with a six-percent increase for the period of January to June, 2022. Unsurprisingly, the most popular big-bore motorcycle in Italy is the R 1250 GS, with a sales figure of 1,735 units from January to June. As for scooters, bigger maxi-scooters, or those with displacements larger than 125cc, saw marginal growth of 3.7 percent. Smaller scooters, however, suffered a nine-percent decline.
What's interesting amid the downtrending sales figures in the motorcycle industry, is the fact that bicycle and e-bike sales across the old continent are skyrocketing with no end in sight. As of June 2022, the European bicycle industry exceeded 22 million units sold for the very first time. It could be that the practical and sustainable mobility provided by bicycling, may be eating into people's interest for purchasing a motorcycle.
Out of the 22 million bikes sold, 5 million of which are electric bicycles—a very interesting proportion, which indicates that e-bikes are growing rapidly in popularity, and are here to stay. Furthermore, the European e-bike industry has transformed itself in to a 19.7-billion-Euro industry—a growth of 7.5 percent from 2020 figures.
Source: Moto.IT