The start of the year and almost all manufacturers have laid down their gauntlets for the year with new technology and model reveals…but which motorcycle brand will come out on top and what will be the biggest selling motorcycle of 2022.
You might think that market share heavyweights such as Harley Davidson for the USA or Triumph for Europe might have some impressive numbers but they fade into the background when compared to the Japanese monster that is Honda.
The other Japanese manufacturers are large but no where near the scale of Honda. So which other brands could make a charge and take tope spot. Well, the likely contenders and the brands not really known that well in the West.
Motorcycle companies from India such as Hero, Bajaj & TVS will take a huge chunk of the regional marketplace with Royal Enfield also putting up some impressive numbers too…however Hero with 4.5million sales are the clear leader in the space, whilst Bajaj at 2.3million and TVS at 2.25million are still in a healthy position.
Chinese manufacturers collectively will be selling high volumes of low capacity motorcycles however this will largely be within their own domestic market too, however Chinese brand Yadea are over 10million units of E scooters and bikes for 2021, so really it is Honda with over 13million units sold for 2021 at a global level that will be hard to beat and mostly their figures are boosted by the sales of small capacity entry level bikes which gives them the corporate power to entertain development of larger bikes such as their sports bikes, ADVs and Tourer.
Japanese brands Yamaha has a healthy year of 3.5million units sold with Suzuki at 1.2million and matching Chinese giant Haojue but again only being sold in domestic markets.
What is blindingly obvious from 2021 that the EV market share is growing at an increasing rate. Niu Tech selling 900,000units and this is likely to grow further in 2022.
By far the biggest selling motorcycle of 2021 was the Honda Scooter PCX 125 but other variants may apply in different regions, followed closely by Yamaha NMax & Mio and we would expect something similar for this year too but the EV scooter market will make big number this year so we could see a new leader globally at this power level.
So when we consider the Harley Davidson Pan America which became the market ADV leader in the US in 2021 it should be tempered with the sale numbers of less than 2,000 as compare to Honda 120k +.