Postie and discounts return Honda to top
Heavy discount offers on learner motorcycles and a large delivery of NBC110 postie bikes to Australia Post has helped Honda leapfrog Harley-Davidson to return as the top-selling road bike company in Australia in the first quarter of 2016.
Honda broke its March sales record, lifting their first-quarter road bike sales to 20.5% or 2377 of the 11,576 road motorcycles sold.
It was just 91 ahead of Harley-Davidson with 2286 or 19.7% and Yamaha at 1778 or 15.4%. Harley had led the road bike category for the first time last year.
The most significant growth in road bike sales last quarter was recorded by Ducati, up 31.1% to 468 and Yamaha up 20.5% to 1778.
Road bikes continue to dominate the market, rising 2.8% to be 46% (11,576) of the total motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATV) and scooters sold up to the end of March. That compares with 41.4% of the total market in 2015.
Sales across the market were up 1.6% to 24,994 in the first three months, according to official figures released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), following a minimal 0.1% increase for 2015.
Honda remained at the top with 5512 bikes sold, or 22.1% of the market, followed by Yamaha 4995 (20%), Kawasaki 2684 (10.7%), Suzuki 2395 (9.6%), Harley-Davidson 2286 (9.1%), KTM 1760 (7%), Polaris 1139 (4.6%), BMW 869 (3.5%), Triumph 704 (2.8%) and Ducati 468 (1.9%).
Off-road bikes were up 3.7% and ATV 2.7%, while scooters continued to slide with a drop of 19.3%.
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Source: motorbikewriter.com