Good news to start the year: 2024 was a record year for motorcycle sales in Belgium. With almost 3,000 more motorcycles sold than in 23, motorcycle sales also exceeded the 28,000 mark for the first time. Please note: these are registered motorcycles, if we add MX motorcycles to this, the impossible to reach milestone of 30,000 is not that far away.
Result to be qualified
Some interpretation of these numbers is as welcome as a Dafalgan on New Year’s Day. As in November, the motorized two-wheeler market saw its registrations increase sharply in December. Hold on tight: +181.0%, or 1,734 registrations in December 2024 compared to 617 in December 2023. The month of December having ended in style a year which had already broken the rainfall record a month earlier, there must have been a reason other than exceptionally milder weather. The increase is largely due to the introduction of the Euro 5+ standard for new motorcycles from January 1, 2025. This has accelerated motorcycle sales as well as registrations (because that’s what this is) the remaining stock of Euro 5 motorcycles. It is therefore entirely possible that the invoice will be paid in January. Perhaps there will be a decline and sales will normalize in the spring.
Record
In any case, in 2024, the market for new motorized two-wheelers in Belgium will have 28,330 registrations, compared to 25,359 in 2023 – which was also a more than solid year. This growth of +11.7% also represents a record for the motorized two-wheeler market, according to Febiac. In fact, this is the first time in 15 years that the 28,000 registration mark has been crossed. The federation does not specify whether this had never happened before.
Top 10
Honda is the best-selling motorcycle brand in Belgium for the second year in a row. In December, BRP broke through with an increase of 16,000%. This Euro5+ standard, you know… In the top 10 of ’24, there are brands that succeed brilliantly. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Harley-Davidson, BRP (see December) and Ducati grew by more than 10%.
Outstanding
In the “unbelievable but true” series, we also note that CFMoto, 12th, is now really close to the top-10, that KTM is still seventh despite current problems, that Zero Motorcycles (38th) as an electric brand now sells more that an iconic brand like MV Agusta (43rd) and that there are more than a handful of brands in the top-40 that we have never heard of within the editorial staff. This last point is mainly due to the 125 cm3, which are also included in this classification. Which does not add value to top 10 brands like BMW, Kawasaki, Triumph, Harley-Davidson and Ducati in their sales figures.
The wettest year ever
These are just a few thoughts that don’t change the fact that the motorcycle market has performed very well in the wettest year ever. It therefore remains to be hoped that the year 2025 will be sunnier than the past year. However, the claim that weather conditions have a major impact on sales figures no longer seems to be relevant. Hoping that this new motorcycling year will be full of twists and turns!
Source : Febiac
Belgium
