Honda Motor Co. has reported its 2012 sales figures, with the Japanese behemoth showing a 5% sales drop for 2012, when compared to 2011. Selling 15.6 million units last year, Honda made progress in its home country Japan (+1%), as well as in North America (+25%) and Europe (+22%).

However in Honda’s most volume-heavy markets, the company suffered modest loses: South America (-14%), Asia (-5%), and China (-1%). With three out of four Honda motorcycles being sold in Asia, the region’s 5% dip essentially assured the Japanese company’s sales loss for the year.

Ducati North America is reporting that 2012 was its best all-time retails sales year, with the Italian brand selling 10,883 units last year. This figure means that roughly a quarter of all Ducati motorcycles sold in 2012 were sold in North America, again solidifying the market’s #1 importance to the Bologna Brand.

For an added bonus, Ducati North America is also reporting 10 consecutive quarters of increased sales, with 2012 as whole growing 21% compared to 2011. With every sales region in the US growing in volume, the United States saw 21% growth overall, with Canada (25%) and Mexico (7%) adding to the cause as well. On the non-bike side of things, Ducati North America’s line of apparel and performance parts saw 42% in growth.

If we asked you which Germanic company was the largest motorcycle brand by volume, you would likely guess BMW Motorrad…and you would be wrong. Snap! Displacing the venerable brand from Bavaria, which set its own sales record, KTM’s 2012 sales year of 107,142 units has handed the Austrian brand the distinction of being the best-selling Germanic brand worldwide (by a margin of less than 1,000 machines).

Normally when we talk about Husqvarna’s sales, it is about how the German-owned, Italian-run, Swedish-in-name-only brand is slowly collapsing in on itself like a dying star. Not so in 2012 though, as Husqvarna sales to dealers were up a solid 15.7% (10,751 units) over the 2011 figures (9,286 units).

Holy shnikeys Batman, but with numbers that sounds almost too good to be true, a closer examination of Husqvarna’s sales figures sheds some interesting facts. Fans of the brand, may not like what they have to hear after the jump.

Selling 106,358 motorcycles and maxi-scooters worldwide in 2012, BMW Motorrad had its best 365 days of sales ever last year. A 2% gain over 2011 (104,286 units), the record was punctuated by December’s sales figures, which were up 42.4% over last year, with 6,069 units sold.

Breaking things down, BMW Motorrad’s home market of Germany continues to be the #1 region for the motorcycle brand, with roughly 1 in 5 bikes produced being sold to zie Germans (20,516 units). The United States was the second-largest market with 12,100 units, followed by France (10,950), Italy (10,200), and Brazil (7,7442). Of note, Italy used to be BMW’s second-largest market, but the economic troubles of the Mediterranean states continues to send motorcycle sales in a tailspin.

2012 was a good year for BMW Motorrad USA, as the German motorcycle brand saw its sales rise 14% over last year’s figures, despite the industry trend of marginal growth. Selling 12,057 units in 2012, BMW’s leading bikes in the USA were the BMW S1000RR and BMW K1600GT/GTL.

BMW Motorrad sold 1,934 S1000RR superbikes last year, a figure that is surprisingly 21% higher from the RR’s 2011 numbers. Zie Germans also had their first full-year of K1600 sales, where the six-cylinder touring bike had 1,601 delivers of the GTL model, and 697 deliveries of the GT variant (note: these are dealership deliveries, not customer sales), seemingly making it the best-selling motorcycle in the BMW fleet for the USA.

Announcing today its “New Medium-term Management Plan” that will cover the next three years of business operations, Yamaha Motor Co.’s strategy is fairly simple, yet also very ambitious. While fighting against the global currency exchange rate with the yen, the Japanese company is hoping to release over 250 new units over its various product segments.

While this goal encompasses all of Yamaha Motors’ product lines, the most obvious additions for the motorcycle division will be Yamaha’s recently announced three-cylinder motorcycles, as well as the now confirmed Yamaha YZF-R250, a 250cc sport bike that will debut in the Indian market.

Unless you have an MBA, Yamaha’s three-year business strategy is a pretty dull read (it might still be a snoozer, even if you do have an MBA), but one Powerpoint slide struck me as interesting (you can see the full presentation here).

It is no secret that Ducati had high hopes for the Ducati 1199 Panigale when it debuted the machine at the 2011 EICMA motorcycle show, and the Italian superbike certainly has proven itself to be popular with new motorcycle buyers in 2012. Selling 7,500 units worldwide so far this year, the Panigale is one of Ducati’s best selling motorcycles ever, and accounts for roughly 17% of the Italian company’s sales for this year (2012 being Ducati’s best sales year ever).

Although Ducati hasn’t closed out the year yet, CEO of Ducati Motor Holding Gabriele Del Torchio was confident when speaking to the press at EICMA that the company would top last year’s record numbers, with a solid 20% grow margin. Expected to take the company to 44,000 units sold worldwide, 2012 is the best sales year by volume in the history of the company, and comes just after the company’s acquisition by Audi AG.

Doubling its marketshare worldwide, the Bologna Brand says it has made a 10% increase in what it calls its “Ducati Relevant Market” – the company’s core demographic of buyers (or what Mitt Romney would call, the brand’s 53%). For fun facts, nine out of ten Ducatis made in Borgo Panigale are destined for foreign markets (read: Italy now accounts for 10% of Ducati’s sales). We already knew that the US is Ducati’s top stronghold, with the American market growing by double-digits this year.

Ducati North America has some impressive Q3 2012 sales numbers, as the Italian brand is up 24% over the same time period from last year. Its ninth-straight quarter of retail sales growth, Ducati North America owes a great deal of its success surprisingly to the Ducati Diavel, which was Bologna’s strongest model for growth in September. Ducati North America’s sales were up 40% in September.

Ducati hopes that 2012 will be a record year for the company, with sales from the Ducati 1199 Panigale helping fuel that enthusiasm. While Ducati remains bullish about the Panigale’s sales, our Bothan Spies have hinted that the new superbike hasn’t exactly met the initially high-sales expectations.