United States Motorcycles is falling down. In April sales declined continued and figures at 54.792 were down 7.4% with year to date April sales at 162.278 (-8.8%). Kawasaki reached an historical top place among manufacturers!
Economic Outlook
In this most likely economic scenario, individuals and businesses front-load some trade activity early in 2025 to avoid tariffs; as tariffs take effect, trade slows later this year and into next. We forecast real exports will grow by 0.7% in 2025 and 1% in 2026, while real imports will grow by 1.8% in 2025 and 0.9% in 2026.
The inflationary effects of tariffs mean the Federal Reserve can only manage 75 basis points of cuts over the next 24 months. Real consumer spending grows by 2.9% in 2025 and 1.4% in 2026.
Government spending cuts and layoffs continue over the next few years, which subtract value from overall growth. Overall, our modeling shows real GDP growth of 2.6% in 2025 and 2.1% in 2026. GDP growth then averages 1.9% per year over the remaining three years of the forecast.
Motorcycles Industry Trend and Perspectives
The two-wheeler market in the United States is the 14th largest in the World and one of the more stable, with annual volume steady in the range of around half a million since over a decade.
Following the weak performance (-4.6%) reported last year, when all economic indicators hits the best in this century, the start of 2025 was awful for the domestic market, showing a fast declining consumers demand. Year to date March sales have been 108.888 (-10.6%), the worst start in the last decade.
In April sales declined continued and figures at 54.792 were down 7.4% with year to date April sales at 162.278 (-8.8%).
Market Leaders and Performance
In the competitive arena, following a positive yearly pathway, Kawasaki was able to reach the leadership, overtaking Honda, with sales improving a huge 29.2% year on year.
Honda lost the leadership and 15.3% of sales compared with the correspondent period last year.
It seems that the victim of the new economic wave in the States is and will be the american icon, actually in third place, Harley-Davidson, which started losing a deep 24.5%
Behind Yamaha (+1.0%), KTM (-27.7%), Indian (+1.6%), Suzuki (-18.1%) and BMW (-5.7%).
