Electric bikes still on the rise as motorcycle industry figures for May released

The Motor Cycle Industry Association (MCIA) has published the industry figures for May 2022, which show an increase in sales for electrics compared to 2021, but a decline for combustion bikes, overall, compared to last year. 

In May, the MCIA figures reveal. the total number of motorcycles, mopeds and tricycles registered was 11,930, which is an increase of 603 registrations over April 2022.

However, this is a decrease of almost 1,500 bikes compared to May 2021, meaning a reduction of 11%. 

In the year-to-date, though, 2022 is proving more fruitful for the motorcycle industry than 2021, with over 8,000 more registrations this year than last in the first five months. This is an increase of 19%, which is not insignificant. 

A large portion of this growth for the year-to-date is down to the ‘Road Sport’ category, which has the highest year-to-year growth of any category for May, with a 37.8% increase on 2021. ‘Road Sport’, which the MCIA defines as “Designed with the latest race bike technology, they feature full fairings and low handlebars and riding position and are sometimes referred to as race replicas,” is also one of only four categories of motorcycles that has grown in May 2022 compared to May 2021. The category also includes bikes which fall between 'sport' and 'touring'. The other categories which have grown compared to May 2021 are: Competition; Modern Classic; and Touring. 

For Road Sport, the growth could be down to a Superbike World Championship revitalised by the three-way rivalry between Jonathan Rea, Toprak Razgatlioglu, and Alvaro Bautista, and their manufacturers, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Ducati. Although, the class' most-registered bike was the Suzuki GSX-S1000 T. As for Competition, which encompasses bikes such as trials and enduro machines, the explanation could be that there are more competitions available now than in May 2021, as the world opens up post-Covid, and the same could be said for the growth of Touring bikes, where Honda has dominated with the NT1100 in May, as people can go to places more freely than they could at this time last year. 

In terms of engine capacity, only the 126cc-650cc category grew in May 2022 compared to May 2021, and that was only by 0.7%. In the year-to-date, though, all engine capacity categories (0-50cc, 51-125cc, 126-650cc, 651-1000cc, over 1000cc) have grown compared to last year. This was mostly thanks to the Royal Enfield Meteor 350, which was the most-registered bike in the 126-650cc category.

On the electric front, the biggest growth compared to May last year was the 4-11kW bracket, which can be described as encompassing the 50cc-equivalent scooters to 125cc-equivalents. In this bracket, the growth was 681.8% compared to May 2021, and there were 13 more registrations in this category than April 2022, with 86 compared to 73. The most-registered bike in this class was the Silence S01.

When we reported on the April figures, we wrote that the 11-15kW bracket was up over 3,000% in the year-to-date compared to last year. As of May, that is up another 200%, at 3,350% in total. The numbers themselves are not colossal, with 69 registrations in this category this year so far, but the growth is indicative of a growing appetite for electric two-wheelers with some more punch than a 125cc-equivalent.