vThere was no sign of German citizens' reluctance to buy on the German two-wheeler market in 2023 – on the contrary: the balance sheet of the Motorcycle Industry Association (IVM) for the past year is very positive with 212,383 motorcycles and scooters registered for the first time, which means an increase of 14,190 Units (7.2 percent) compared to 2022. The IVM speaks of the second best annual results in recent times after the Corona year 2020. The two-wheeler industry owes this positive development mainly to the large motorcycles with a displacement of more than 125 cubic centimeters, the motorcycle segment even increased by 16.4 percent, while slight declines were recorded in all other categories.
The most popular motorcycles continue to be “classic motorcycles”, i.e. naked bikes and so-called retro bikes. Four out of ten vehicles belong to this category, almost three out of ten are travel enduros. Tourers, choppers and cruisers as well as sport bikes make up the rest. When it comes to the most popular brands, BMW remains well ahead with almost 24,000 new registrations.
Be happy about growth
Second place Honda has increased by a sensational 90 percent to 22,170 units; The Japanese made seven of the 20 most popular motorcycles in Germany in 2023. The pursuers are Kawasaki (almost 13,000 units) and KTM from Austria with 11,600 vehicles. With the exception of Harley-Davidson, which recorded a decline of 4.5 percent, all of the top ten brands were able to enjoy growth. However, Germany's motorcyclists continue to rely primarily on the used market: it closed the year with almost 443,000 vehicles traded, a small decline of 3.9 percent. At the forefront was the R 1200 GS from BMW.
When it comes to power scooters, Vespa (6,743 units) still leads by a large margin and has a market share of almost 40 percent. When it comes to 125s, Honda has grown significantly with 5266 units, while Yamaha (4427 units) has fallen back to second place. Aprilia and KTM follow. Vespa is also at the forefront when it comes to light scooters with 10,564 units. Although they are in the red at 2.9 percent, Honda in second place with 5770 lost even more at 14 percent.
Electrically powered two-wheelers can still only make a fair impression as scooters or light scooters: their share reaches around 15 percent of scooters with combustion engines. The proportion of motorcycles and 125cc light motorcycles is negligible.
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