Netherlands Motorcycle Market lost terrain again in 2025. Following a shy -2.3% reported in Q1, during the second quarter the trend continued and Year to Date May sales were 23.366 (-1.0%) Piaggio is market leader.
Economic Environment
According to the first estimate from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on the data currently available, gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Economic growth has declined over the past four quarters. The growth in the first quarter of 2025 was mainly due to a smaller reduction in inventories than in the previous quarter. In addition, public consumption made a small positive contribution.
Year on year, the GDP of the Netherlands grew by 2.0 percent in Q1 2025. Public consumption and the trade balance contributed to this growth the most. Public consumption was 2.8 percent higher, and household consumption was 0.6 percent higher. Investments were 1.5 percent higher in the first quarter, year on year. Exports were up by 0.9 percent, while imports rose less strongly at 0.6%.
The Motorcycles Industry Trend and Perspectives
The Dutch two-wheeler market has historically been a pioneer in anticipating trends, particularly in the pre-COVID-19 period when it spearheaded the growth of the electric scooter segment, establishing itself as the largest market in Europe for this category and driving overall market expansion for several years.
However, in the period 2020-2024 the market was always declining, mainly for the low demand for scooter, EVs in particular, and annual sales declined considerably.
The start of 2025 was again negative, while better than Europe in average, and sales in the first three months of the year have been 12.876 (-2.3%).
In the second quarter the trend continued and Year to Date May sales were 23.366 (-1.0%)
After years of decline, finally the EVs segment is recovering with sales up 5.8%.
Currently, however, electric vehicle manufacturers are encountering significant challenges primarily due to disruptions in the Chinese supply chain, resulting in a substantial decline in the scooter segment and negatively impacting the entire industry.
Among top manufacturers, Piaggio still leads the market, although reporting marginal increase, with +6.3% of sales year to date.
In second place the local producer La Souris lost 3.3%, followed by Kawasaki (+9.3%), SYM (-9.4%), Yamaha (-9.6%), Honda (+16.4%) and BMW (-3.1%).
