UK Motorcycle Sales decline in June, Triumph Trident top seller

Sales of motorcycles in the United Kingdom suffered a decline for the third consecutive month in June, though figures at the mid-way point in the year still out-performed those of last year at the same stage.

Having stolen a march on last year’s sales after the first quarter due to the impact of a third lockdown period between January and March, the relative return to normality in the ensuing months led to a buoyant bounceback.

As such, like-for-like sales that compare 2021 and 2022 during April, May and June have struggled to keep up with last year’s monthly figures.

For June, a total of 12,523 units were shifted across the market (motorcycles/scooters), a 15.7% decline over June 2021. All segments suffered a drop of varying degrees, though the scooter category - which represents the largest class in terms of sales volume - saw a notable decline of 31.4%.

Despite the downward trend, sales of motorcycles and scooters in the UK for during the first six months of 2022 still comfortably exceeded those of mid-way through 2021 with 63,963 units shifted this year so far.

This compares with the 58,105 units during the first six months of 2021. Moreover, if second-half sales were to match that of the first half of 2022, it would represent a bumper year for the UK motorcycle industry with approximately 126,000 units sold, compared with 114,000 in 2021.

The best-selling motorcycles in UK for June 2022

Honda held onto its customary spot at the head of the UK sales charts with 2,200 models sold during June.

However, Triumph arguably steals the limelight by not only leapfrogging Yamaha to be ranked the second most popular brand in the UK, but also concludes June with the best-selling full-size motorcycle in the Trident 660.

Yamaha chased its British rival in third place but had the best-selling PTW (powered two-wheeler) overall in the Yamaha NMAX 125, while BMW typically had strong figures for the venerable R 1250 GS Adventure to thank for hitting four figures for fourth overall.

Royal Enfield consolidated its newfound position inside the UK’s top five brands with Meteor 350 and Classic 350 topping the Custom and Modern Classic categories.

Lexmoto was sixth most popular, ahead of KTM, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Piaggio.

Other notable results of the month included the recently launched Honda NT 1100 retaining its place atop the Sports Tourer class, while the Super Soco TC Max was  the best-selling electric model.