Harley dominates 2016 road bike sales
Harley-Davidson overtook Honda as the top-selling road bike company in Australia in 2015, thanks largely to strong sales of the new learner-approved Street 500, according to the latest Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries figures.
Road bike sales were strong, increasing 2.6% compared with 2014 and accounting for 41.4% of the total market. Australians rode home with a total of 45,013 road bikes in 2015.
Harley-Davidson accounted for 21.7% of those bikes with 9790 sales, including 1605 Street 500 models and 1552 Softail Breakouts.
By the end of the third quarter the Street 500 was one of the top three sellers in the country, but sales of the 50cc toy bikes for Christmas surged past it, while the 2014 top seller, Kawasaki’s Ninja 300, also surged to bypass the Street in sixth position overall, followed by the most expensive bike in the top 10, the Harley Breakout at $29,750.
Harley beat the perennial winner, Honda, which secured 17.1% of road bike sales (7691), followed by Yamaha (15.4%, 6914), Kawasaki 1(2.7%, 5731) and BMW (7.1% 3201).
Harley-Davidson Australia spokesman Adam Wright is understandably “super excited” about being the number one road bike seller across Australia.
“Much of the success is attributed to the new LAMS Street 500 which was released in February of 2015 and the ongoing popularity of the Softail Breakout which continues to be in high demand,” he says.
“May I also say we would not have achieved this level of success without the assistance and dedication of our dealer network who have done an outstanding job across 2015 in delivering dreams of personal freedom to so many great customers. “
The total motorcycle, scooter and ATV market was steady at just 0.1% growth, or just 103 more vehicles to 108,711.
The ATV sector was up 1.2% to 20,327 and off-road up just 0.8% to 37,982 while scooters continued to slide from favour with a massive 22.7% drop to just 5389.
Honda was the largest-selling brand overall, with 22.5%, followed by Yamaha (21.4%, 23,290), Kawasaki (9.8%, 10,675), Suzuki (9%, 9806) and Harley-Davidson (9%, 9790).
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Source: motorbikewriter.com