The European brands continue to share their good news from 2021, with BMW Motorrad boasting of its record sales performance last year.
To that end, BMW says that it sold 194,261 units in 2021, up +14.8% from the previous year. This total means a sales volume that is the best ever for BMW Motorrad.
“Harley-Davidson delivered a solid third quarter and we have seen many of our Hardwire strategic initiatives perform well, providing encouraging initial proof points of our five-year strategy,” said Jochen Zeitz, chairman, president and CEO, Harley-Davidson.
That is how the Bar & Shield brand’s press release about its Q3 2021 sales starts out. The company goes on to acclaim its sales progress for this year, citing relevant metrics back to this time period in 2020.
As predicted, Audi has dropped its Q1 2021 financials report, which means we get a glimpse into Ducati’s first quarter results for the year – and more specifically, which segments in Ducati’s lineup are performing (or not).
As we teased earlier this week, sales are strong for the Italian brand. Ducati is posting a 33% gain over 2020’s dismal numbers, but more importantly, Ducati still managed to show a 2% gain against the first quarter of 2019.
We now take a break from our usual doom and gloom when it comes to Harley-Davidson motorcycle sales, to report that the Bar & Shield brand has reported a stellar first quarter to 2021.
What we expect will the first of many motorcycle manufacturers to see strong growth in the new year, Harley-Davidson saw a 9% increase in motorcycles sold in the first three months of this year. Boom goes the dynamite.
As we saw with the Ducati Motor Holding’s sales report from earlier today, 2020 was an obviously tough year for the motorcycle industry, and that trend continues with the BMW Motorrad’s results for the year.
In its preliminary report on the BMW Group’s annual sales, the German brand quotes that it sold 169,272 motorcycles and scooters to customers in 2020.
Despite BMW Motorrad spinning this as its second-best sales year ever, this number of bikes sold is a 3.4% drop compared to 2019’s sales volume, and it is the first time in nine years that sales for BMW Motorrad have not grown.
The beancounters are working hard to close the books on 2020, which means we are starting to see our first reports on the total economic situation from last year.
With factory closures, disrupted supply chains, and stay-at-home orders featuring heavily in the first-half of the year, the coronavirus decimated motorcycle sales worldwide.
Then, the second-half of the year saw a huge bump in two-wheel interest, buoyed by economic relief efforts, delayed sales trends, and a renewed interest in the ultimate social-distancing machine.
This makes for a grab bag of perspectives when it comes to motorcycles sales, and nothing could be more true than what Ducati Motor Holding is reporting today.
Harley-Davidson continues to hemorrhage motorcycle unit sales in 2020, with the Bar & Shield brand reporting an 8% loss worldwide on its third-quarter numbers.
This Q3 result means that Harley-Davidson is down 18% for the first nine months of the year, compared to the same point in time as last year.
The news isn’t all bad however, as Harley-Davidson is also reporting that the net income for the third-quarter was up 39% for a total of $120 million – the company’s highest Q3 income since 2015.
The second quarter sales results for Harley-Davidson are in, and once again the American brand is seen floundering with its sales, not only in the United States, but also abroad.
For Q2 2020, Harley- Davidson sees its American sales dropping by 27% compared to Q2 2019 – the same can be said of Harley-Davidson’s worldwide sales for the same time period, which fell by the same percentage.
Added to the already lackluster results from the first quarter of the year, Harley-Davidson sales have sunk 22% for the first-half of the year, with worldwide sales diving 23% so far this year, compared to last.
There is a concerted effort in the motorcycles industry to spin the sales nightmare that is 2020.
A great example of this is today’s press release from BMW Motorrad, which disclosed that the German brand is down 17.7% in unit sales for the first six months of 2020.
The yearly results for Harley-Davidson are out, and once again they paint a dark figure for the iconic American motorcycle brand, as its total worldwide sales collapsed like a dying star, with a decline of 4.3% to bring the company to a total of 218,273 units sold worldwide.
Things were worse in the domestic market, with Harley-Davidson’s sales in the USA showing a 5.2% drop (125,960 units) from 2018’s figures.
This leaves the Bar & Shield brand’s international sales down an even 3% (92,313 units) – for those doing the math.
After hearing of the sales growth from BMW Motorrad USA for 2015, we speculated that we would soon here from the German marque on its yearly results internationally, and it seems we were right.
As such, BMW Motorrad is happy to report its fifth consecutive all-time best sales year, with 2015 seeing 136,963 motorcycles and maxi-scooters sold by the German brand. That figure is an impressive 10.9% gain over the sales from 2014, and BMW shows no signs of slowing down.