Taiwan Motorcycles Market is not in a good shape. Although the trend is up and down the cumulative sales performance at June was moderately positive, with 387.368 sales (+0.3%). Gogoro struggles and could be near the end.
Economic Outlook
Taiwan’s gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to grow 2.9% in 2025 with the adverse impacts resulting from the Trump administration “reciprocal” tariffs expected to become more apparent in the second half of the year, according to the Taiwan Research Institute (TRI).
The TRI, one of the leading economic think tanks in Taiwan, said local economic growth is expected to slow down in the second half of the year as rush orders, which are flocking in with foreign buyers looking to avoid tariffs, likely to shrink as the United States’ tariff policies become clearer.
U.S. President Donald Trump first announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2 on countries that have high trade surpluses with the United States. These included a 32 percent import duty on goods from Taiwan, but Trump announced a 90-day pause a week later to allow negotiations for a lower levy.
Motorcycles Industry Trend and Perspectives
Taiwanese motorcycle market, the 12th largest globally, is often called the “kingdom of motorcycles”, with hundreds of thousands on the road at any given time.
Despite being open to imports, it is dominated by domestic manufacturers Kymco and SYM, who compete for market leadership alongside several local electric scooter producers. The combined market share of Kymco, SYM, and Yamaha Taiwan, which are mainly gasoline vehicles, is above 80％, while Gogoro alone dominates the electric market.
The market is mature and very sensitive to economic trends and government incentive scheme, resulting in a wavering trends in the last years.
The country was among the first to adopt incentives schemes for EVs, which allowed a very rapid segment growth already before the 2020, with the born of local companies like Gogoro. However, when incentives were cut, the EVs segment declined. creating concern among manufacturers and consumers.
Following the sharp -16.2% reported in 2024, the start of the current year was again negative again with first quarter sales down 6.2%. The outstanding April recovery (+48.8%) was then followed by a sharp fall in May (-23.8%) and a still negative June (-1.6%). However, although the trend is up and down the cumulative sales performance at June was moderately positive, with 387.368 sales (+0.3%).
The electric segment is currently experiencing significant challenges. The L1 category is down 49.5%, and the L3 segment grew up 16.7% compared to the previous year.
Market Leaders and Performance
Looking at the competitive arena, in the duel among local giants just minor changes last year with the leader SYM gaining 9.4% and the reval Kymco up 0.3%.
Behind, all OEMs lost sales with Yamaha (+1.4%).
In fourth place one of the world pioneer in the electric segment, Gogoro which is losing 51.5% and which is now at risk of bankruptcy, having eroded most of the available cash while not growing the business.
In fifth place a well performing Suzuki (+18.7%), followed by the leader of importers, Honda (-6.9%).
