2-WHEEL VEHICLE SALES DECLINED IN APRIL
In 2010 sales were boosted by a 10 million Euro incentive program

From a comparison with the results recorded in April 2010, we find that registrations improved during the first half of the month, but fell during the latter half. The reason behind these divergent trends lies in the fact that during April 2010 a 10 million Euro incentive program went into effect starting April 15. This prompted a sale surge of 20,000 vehicles, all of them concentrated during the second half of the month.

In the course of April, 35,694 units were sold, accounting for a 15.1% drop. Scooter and motorcycle trend were pretty much the same, with 23,987 units (-15.6%) and 11,707 units (-14.2%), respectively. The incidence of April sales over the total for the year is about 13%.
With 7,095 units, the moped segment declined further, by 22.5%.

“Once again, we cannot make a bias-free comparison with the sales figures recorded in 2010; in early April last year, in fact, prospect buyers were aware that an incentive program would soon come into effect and hence sales were depressed over the first half of the month and took off in the second half.” Explains Corrado Capelli, Chairman of Confindustria ANCMA (National Association for the Bicycle, Motorcycle and Accessory Industry). “We expect market stability to be finally achieved in May, with no extraneous factors influencing the market. In the meantime, the situation of the economy continues to be characterised by uncertainty, while the price of money going up and escalating fuel prices surely do not foster the propensity to buy. Finally - concludes Capelli – the situation of insurance rates continues to be a penalising factor, especially in some areas of central and southern Italy. We hope that Italy will be able to change course and fall into step with the more dynamic European countries, so as to take full advantage of a reversal in sales trends over the next few month. A positive contribution comes from the manufacturers, that keep proposing new models to intercept the requirements of prospect customers.”

First quarter results with 94,685 registrations show a YOY decrease of 19%. With 35,202 units (-9.2%), motorcycles fared somewhat better than scooters, which, with 59,483 units, fell by -23.9%.

If we break down the analysis by engine size, we find that the ranking of scooters in terms of volumes sold was confirmed, as sales of scooters between 300 and 500cc totalled 23,495 units (-18.3%), followed by 125cc scooters with 18,276 units (-20.5%). On the other hand, 150-200cc and 250cc scooters fared much worse, with 11,502 units (-35.5%) and 5,318 units (-32.9%), respectively.

Motorcycle trends continued to reflect a preference for maxi models (over 1000cc), with 11,261 units delivered, accounting for a 7.4% increase, followed by 800-1000cc motorbikes, with 8,968 units (-2.3%). Below the average for the segment, sales of medium-sized models were as follows: 650-750cc motorbikes declined by 24.9% with 6,589 units, and 600cc models, with 3,046 units, dropped by 31.4%. Sales falling by 17.2% were also recorded for 125cc bikes (2,020 units). Going against the trend, motorcycles from 300 to 500cc performed well, albeit with small volumes, and improved by 6.1% (2,183 units).

The various segments showed different trends, as listed below in order of importance:
naked bikes declined, with 11,574 units (-12.1%); road-going enduro bikes, with 9,793 units, were slightly below their 2010 level (-4.3%); custom bikes improved, with 4,067 units (+9.2%), but sports bikes went down (3,620 units, -29.9%); touring bikes gained momentum with 2,828 vehicles sold (+11%), whereas supermotards lost ground, with 2,526 units (-24.4%).

Moped sales totalled 19,421 units, -18.4%, over 2010.

The total obtained by adding up registrations and moped sales comes to 114,106 vehicles: down by 18.9% over the same quarter in 2010.