Today Joe Delmont presents the 2021 forecast for Motorcycle production in North America. This forecast has been developed by Carol Turner, Senior Analyst of Global Operations at Power Systems Research. Carol provides annual production forecasts for important equipment applications.
Transcript
Welcome to the PSR PowerTALK podcast produced by Power Systems Research.
00:06
From Power Systems Research I’m Joe Delmont, editor of PSR PowerTALK. Today we’ll discuss a datapoint covering 2021 North American production of on-road motorcycles.
When we talk about North America in this podcast, we mean Mexico and the United States only. For purposes of this podcast, the motorcycle unit is defined as any two-wheeled on-road vehicle. Other three-wheeled vehicles such as the BRP Spyder and the Polaris Slingshot are classified as motorcycles by the Department of Transportation, but they are included in other of our production reports.
This forecast has been developed by Carol Turner, Senior Analyst of Global Operations at Power Systems Research. Carol provides annual production forecasts for important equipment applications.
00:58
We expect that production of the motorcycle units in North America this year will be about 525400 units. That would be up about 7100 units, or almost 16%, from 2020. The gain is mainly due to increased production by Italika in Mexico.
In 2020, we saw a huge drop in production from the previous year. 2020 production was 453300 units. Down nearly 19%, or about 104000 units, from 2019.
Even with a strong increase this year, annual production will still be 32000 units less than that of 2019, when 557400 units were built. This years production is still down about 6% from 2019.
01:56
Mexico-based Italika leads in the production of on road motorcycles with 54% of total units produced in North America. In second position is Harley-Davidson with 44%, and 3rd is Polaris Industries, with only about 2%.
As much as 20% of US production of on-road motorcycles is shipped worldwide. Leading producer Italika exports throughout Central and South America to countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Brazil and Puerto Rico.
Italika reports record first half 2021 sales of 480000 units for all products; up 33% from 2020 and up about 2% from 2019, thanks to outstanding performance in Mexico. The company has plans to expand its Toluca plant to make up to 750000 units per year. Sales demand is being driven by the fact that motorcycles are a more affordable alternative to using mass transit. The increase is attributed to the demand for new fuel efficient models along with seasonably warm spring and fall weather. Lower pricing has also led to an increase in purchases.
03:13
However, the motorcycle market overall is losing buyers. Industry’s observer notes that baby boomers have been the main target in the motorcycle industry for the last four decades; but, millennials have not been purchasing motorcycles. This is mostly due to age and financial factors.
Boosted by COVID-19 factors, expect production to gain as much as 10% by 2025.
03:41
This data is pulled from two of the major Power Systems Research databases: OE Link — the database of OEM production and forecast data, and EnginLink — which provides engine production forecast and specification data.
Look for datapoint reports every month in the PSR PowerTALK news report and on this podcast.
Contact us for more information on other off-road products and on-highway vehicles.
04:09
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