This year, due to the impact of the epidemic, the industry structure has undergone a huge change, and the motorcycle industry, which has been shadowed for many years, has come to the front stage again.

Harley Davidson‘s third-quarter revenue exceeded expectation

In the third quarter, Harley Davidson’s sales fell 10% from a year earlier to $964 million, but exceeded the market expectation of $864 million; the net profit rose 39% year-on-year to $120 million, the best third quarter performance since 2015; the adjusted earning per share was $1.05, up 50% from a year earlier, far higher than the market expectation of $0.31.

On a regional basis, Harley’s sales fell 10% to 31,300 units in the U.S, rose 7% to 11,200 units in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, fell 6% to 7,600 units in the Asia-Pacific region, and plunged 29% to 1,800 units in Latin America. Its global sales fell 8% to 53,800 units.

Harley said it would not provide financial guidance for the full year because the impact and duration of the public health event remained unclear. However, it was working on a strategic plan for 2021 to 2025 that would focus on about 50 markets, mainly in North America, Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region, where sales and growth potential are higher, and it would exit 39 markets in consideration of sales, profits and potential there.

Motorcycle sales soared due to the epidemic

The COVID-19 epidemic has changed the way people live, leading to a surge in motorcycle sales in the UK, with sales of scooters rising at a record pace. Sales of small motorcycles in the UK rose 62.5% in July from a year earlier, the biggest monthly increase on record, according to the UK Motorcycle Industry Association. Meanwhile, 3,576 new motorcycles were registered in the UK in July, up 57% year on year, a sharp contrast with the car registration of -39.7%.

Motorcycle market ushered in a recovery after the downturn

Data from the China Chamber of Commerce for Motorcycle shows that September is the traditional sales peak season for the motorcycle industry in China. The production and sales of motorcycles have increased significantly, which has basically made up for the impact of the epidemic.

In September, the whole industry achieved production and sales of 1.8707 million and 1.8704 million units, up 14.93% and 16.6% month-on-month, and up 14.53% and 12.74% year-on-year. From January to September this year, the entire industry’s production and sales were 12.1933 million and 12.2694 million units, a year-on-year decline of 2.56% and 1.5%, a decline of about 3% compared with the previous month.

The domestic motorcycle industry began to rise in the 1980s and its production and sales peaked in 2009. However, in recent years, influenced by various factors such as policies and rapid development of other transportation industries, the overall production and sales of motorcycles continued to be weak. Statistics from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that the national motorcycle production dropped from 21,267,800 to 15,577,500 units from 2014 to 2018, and sales fell to 15,570,500 units from 21,294,400 units.

After several years of precipitation, there are multiple signs that the motorcycle market is recovering. Motorcycle ownership has grown rapidly in Xi ‘an, increasing by 33.1% from 147,000 in November 2017 to 195,000 in July this year. To cope with the increase of motorcycle travel, Xi ‘an enhanced input of police force to accelerate the handling of motorcycle accidents, and used face recognition and big data to strengthen the management of motorcycle riding.

Whether motorcycles are used as an urgently-demanded transportation means or an emerging entertainment facility, it has brought the industry a huge turnaround, perhaps the another spring for the industry. (Source: WeChat: mtuocom)