Market hit by record slumps

Negative results in December were mostly accounted for by registered vehicle sales (vehicles > 50 cc), which totalled 6,781 units, down 47% over the same month in 2009. Although the month of December only contributes a 2.2% share of the annual sales figure, the sign is far from encouraging. Scooters stopped at 4,919 units, -49.5%. With 1,862 units sold, motorcycles declined by 39%. Keep in mind that we are still making our comparisons with December 2009, the last month to profit from the incentive program that provided 500 euro per vehicle last year. A factor that indubitably persuaded many buyers to anticipate their purchases.
The moped segment confirmed a disappointing trend: -35.3% with 2,811 units delivered.

“2010 ended in the negative zone, with ca 111,000 fewer vehicles than in 2009. This means a return to the volumes recorded more than a decade ago, as vehicles registered during the year were fewer than in 1999. Whereas last year the availability of over 131 million euro incentive funding had managed to effectively counteract the market crisis, the year just ended suffered from the lack of adequate supporting measures. Only 33,000 vehicles, i.e., just over 10% of registrations, profited from incentives, whereas in 2009 65% of the vehicles had received a significant contribution. The forecasts made turned out to be sport-on, unfortunately,- points out Corrado Capelli, Chairman of Confindustria ANCMA (National Association for the Bicycle, Motorcycle and Accessory Industry) - “this sector is greatly affected by incentive campaigns and when the funds available are limited the propensity to buy is drastically curtailed. The national accounts were also affected by reduced revenues from VAT and registration taxes, adding up to an estimated total of over 100 million euro. Now there is nothing to be done other than working to recover the ground that was lost, and hope that even the economic cycle will show positive signs in 2011. At the Milan Motorcycle Show, the manufacturers and the entire 2-wheel vehicle world presented interesting novelties, that prompted extremely positive comments. We are persuaded that consumer desire for motorcycles is still very strong, as borne out by a lively second-hand vehicle market. But we must strive to win back people’s confidence and the resources necessary to reverse the trend in new vehicle purchases.”

In 2010 registrations of powered 2-wheel vehicles totalled 307,045, with a decrease of 24.2% over 2009. With 213,456 units, scooters fell by 27.7%; less dramatic was the fall in the motorcycle sector, with 93,589 units, accounting for a decline of 14.5%.

The breakdown by engine size confirms the importance of scooters from 300cc to 500cc: with ca 80,123 units (-13.5%) they can be seen as the reference segment. Volumes fell by about one third in the other scooter segments: 125cc (65,628 units, -36.2%), 150-200cc (47,225 units, -33%) and 250cc (18,890 units, -30.9%).

Going against the trend, motorcycles over 1000cc achieved a double digit increase: 24,556 units, up by 10.1%, while, with 23,039 units, motorcycles from 800cc to 1000cc improved 1% over 2009. Dramatic downswings were experienced by medium-sized motorbikes: 600cc with 9,938 units (-41.6%), 650-750cc with 20,545 (-30.4%) and 125cc with 7,635 (-18.7%).

A segment by segment analysis confirms the drastic decline in the volumes of naked bikes (32,070 units, -28.7%) and sports bikes (11,038 units, -26.9%), while supermotards underwent a minor setback, with 8,373 units (-3.3%) and road-going enduro bikes staid pretty much stable, with 23,906 units (-0.9%); custom models kept growing steadily, with 9,993 units (+6.6%), and touring bikes achieved a remarkable improvement, with 6,665 units (+24.3%).

In the 50cc segment, sales stopped at 85,921 units, down by 13.9%.

If we look at the totality of powered 2-wheel vehicles (registered + 50cc) we get 392,966 vehicles, down -22.1% compared with the previous year.