(1) HONDA

Honda's motorcycle segment continued its growth momentum last year, with global sales of 18.5 million units in 2023 (motorcycles and scooters, without differentiating the power/sport segment), up about 4.4% from 2022 and the fourth highest sales figure ever for Honda. At the same time, it also shows its absolute leading position in the industry.

In 2018, Honda motorcycles surpassed 20 million new vehicle registrations worldwide, the first time in their history that they have surpassed that number. Due to the impact of the pandemic, Honda's global registrations dropped to about 15 million vehicles by 2020; In 2021, the data began to recover, with registrations rising to 17 million; By 2022, global registrations have risen further to 17.7 million.

In 2023, the trend of Honda motorcycles in different regional markets is roughly as follows:

1. The ASEAN region is the world's largest regional market, with new car registrations expected to reach 16.9 million units in 2023, with growth of 7.9% in the first half of the year, but slowing in the second half. For Honda, the ASEAN region is one of their most dependent markets, and last year their registration in this market increased by 21.8%;

2. In Indonesia, the largest single market in the ASEAN region, where Honda has dominated and controlled the segment for decades, sales in 2023 increased by 7.1% compared to 2022;

3. Another important region is South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other neighboring countries), which will account for 28% of Honda's global registrations in 2023, down 8.9% from 2022.

4. In Asia (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other regions), new car registrations increased by 31.3% compared to 2022.

5. In other regions, compared to 2022 registrations, the European region increased by 33.5%, the North American region increased slightly by 0.2%, and the Latin American region increased by about 10.9%.

(2) YAMAHA

Yamaha Motor's sales in the global market continue to recover, however, in 2023, its growth rate is still very limited. In fact, Yamaha Motor sold about 4.6 million vehicles globally last year, a slight increase of about 0.8 percent from 2022, but still a far cry from the more than 6 million vehicles it sold more than a decade ago.

Note: According to the official data released by Yamaha Motor, their global sales of motorcycles in 2022 were 4.774 million units. That compares with growth in the first three quarters of last year.

For the past few decades, Yamaha Motor's basic strategy in the global two-round market has been to follow the market leader (Honda) far from filling the gap, but to adhere to the solid rule of "first among other manufacturers" outside the leader. In 2011, after India's Hero and Honda "divorce", became an independent company, opened their own road, Hero products initially mainly for the Indian market, but then gradually to the global, and rapid growth, in recent years is more than Yamaha in sales. Yamaha Motor is now the world's third-largest motorcycle maker by sales, behind Honda and Hero.

For Yamaha Motor, their current problem is not only the loss of a position in the sales list, but also the loss of sales, which is the story of Yamaha Motor in the past decade: Starting with 5.8 million units sold in 2012, the Japanese manufacturer's sales have continued to decline through 2019; Then, with the outbreak of the epidemic in 2019, Yamaha Motor's global sales in 2020 plummeted to a new record low of only 3.4 million vehicles.

In 2023, Yamaha Motor's sales trends in the global market are roughly as follows:

1. Markets with significant growth compared to 2022 include Latin America (up about 16.5%), Eastern Europe (up about 32.9%), and Western Europe (up about 11.1%).

2. The region with a slight increase was South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.), which grew by about 1.7 percent.

3, the major regional markets in Asia, including China, Japan, South Korea, 2023 sales figures are lower than 2022.

(3) SUZUKI

Following rapid sales growth in the past two years (2021 and 2022), Suzuki continues to drive in the fast lane, with full-year 2023 sales of 1.9 million units, achieving one of the best sales (volume) results of the past decade since 2012. Judging from this sales figure, Suzuki is the seventh largest motorcycle (including scooters) manufacturer in the world.

From 2016 to 2019, Suzuki's annual global sales increased from 1.3 million to 1.6 million units before the 2019 outbreak, and fell to 1.3 million units in 2020 after the outbreak. Starting in 2021, Suzuki's global sales began to pick up and continue to grow on a positive path, reaching 1.9 million units last year, the best since 2012, thanks to good performance in several countries.

In several regional markets, the market trends for Suzuki Motorcycles last year were as follows:

1. Growth in China and India, two of the world's largest markets, is the core driving force for Suzuki Moto to achieve good results in 2023: In the Chinese market, Suzuki's 2023 sales increased by about 7.15% over the previous year, and in the Indian market, it increased by about 21.7%, and the two markets together accounted for about 61.3% of Suzuki's global sales.

2, the European market in 2023 achieved a strong growth of about 38.5% over the previous year;

3, negative growth over 2022 markets include the ASEAN region (down about 7.7 percent), Latin America (down about 3.5 percent) and the Pacific region (Oceania, down about 6 percent).

(4) KAWASAKI

Kawasaki's global sales have been disappointing. Despite strong sales growth in the European market, their sales trend in 2023 was almost the same, with 483,461 vehicles sold by the end of the year, an increase of about 1% compared with 2022.

In 2019, Kawasaki's new car sales set a historic record of 590,588 units, but as the global market declined due to the subsequent outbreak of the epidemic, sales also declined. By 2022, Kawasaki's sales had made a modest recovery, which continued last year.

Specific market performance, Kawasaki's 2023 growth markets include Western Europe (up about 21%), Eastern Europe (up about 16.4%), North America (up about 4.7%), and South Asia (including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and nearby countries) with slight growth. Sales fell in Japan (down about 10.6 percent), South Korea (down about 41 percent) and ASEAN (down about 0.6 percent).

(Graphic reprinted from Qunce network)