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More than 6,500 new motorcycles were registered in Hungary last year, meaning that the market has almost doubled in five years. Demand is growing even though list prices have risen rapidly in recent years, Világgazdaság reports.
The Hungarian new motorcycle market performed better than expected in 2023, with a total of 6,555 new motorcycles registered last year, an impressive 26.1 percent increase compared to the previous year, based on data from DataHouse.
The rate of growth roughly doubled compared to 2022, when the number of new motorcycles registered rose by nearly 13 percent to close to 5,200.
The volume of just over 6,500 also means that the number of new motorcycles sold in Hungary has roughly doubled in five years.
The Hungarian Vehicle Importers Association has forecast a roughly 10 percent increase in the number of motorcycles sold for the whole year at the beginning of 2023. The motorcycle market performed much better than expected, while the market for new passenger cars shrank by 3.4 percent. In fact, last year, only the sale of passenger cars in the major categories declined, whereas DataHouse recorded a 17.5 percent increase in the market for new small commercial vehicles and an 11.3 percent increase for large commercial vehicles.
The BMW CE 04 is still the clear leader in the electric category and is sold more than all other battery-powered scooters and motorcycles.
BMW R 1250 GS, the most popular large motorcycle in 2023. Photo: Facebook/BMW Motorrad Magyarország
With a growing market for new engines, imports of used vehicles are now performing much more modestly: after roughly 8,500 imports in 2019, only 6,740 used motorcycles were registered in Hungary in 2022, up marginally – by just over two percent – from a year earlier. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as most of the imported vehicles – like passenger cars – are from the over-10 age group, which does not help the age composition of the fleet.
The growing number of new motorcycles and the slightly declining, but relatively stable, volume of second-hand imports are also leading to a trend increase in the domestic motorcycle fleet.
BMW CE 04, the leader in the electric category in Hungary. Photo: Facebook/BMW Motorrad Magyarország
Figures from the Hungarian Central Statistical Office show that
at the end of 2022, there were 210,700 motorcycles in circulation in Hungary, four percent (8,200) more than a year earlier.
Sales of new motorcycles have made good progress despite the fact that the economic environment has not necessarily supported the market for vehicles often used for recreational purposes, while list prices have also risen rapidly in recent years. Part of the reason for this growth may be that smaller displacement motorcycles in particular (125-500 cc) are increasingly becoming a real alternative to cars for urban and commuter transport, for instance because of lower maintenance costs and easier parking.
Via Világgazdaság, Featured image: Pexels