United States Motorcycles starts 2026 moderately positive. year to date April sales at 169.953, up 1.8% from the correspondent period last year. Harley-Davidson is gaining 10%, while the Chinese CF Moto keeps rapidly gaining space.
Motorcycle Industry: Trends and Outlook
The U.S. two-wheeler market is the 14th largest in the world and among the most stable, with annual volumes hovering around half a million units for more than a decade, although in thi period the market assisted to the continue decline of the american icon, Harley-Davidson, which lost the rules of leader together with near half of domestic annual sales.
Although the traditional stability, in the last years the market is declining, reporting a 5% annual decline both on 2024 and 2025.
The 2026 start was better then expected and sales grew up moderately in the first 3 months, before to decline, but for a mere 1% in April, after that fuel price grew up over 50%., with year to date April sales at 169.953, up 1.8% from the correspondent period last year.
Good news from the electric segment which is growing 6.9%, driven by small motorcycles, mainly off-road.
Market Leaders and Competitive Performance
The competitive landscape saw an intense battle for market leadership, with Kawasaki back on top of the list with sales down 5.5% and with the former leader, Honda, starting slow as last year (-2.9%).
Surprisingly, Harley-Davidson is recovering in double digit (+10.1%) and is now challenging back the leaders.
In fourth place there is Yamaha (+7.7%) ahead of KTM (+7.0%), Suzuki (+11.0%) and BMW (+1.2%).
All of them are under attack of the Chinese CF Moto which actually ranks 8th, but with a +70.1% speed.
Paradoxically, it appears that the tariff regime introduced under the Trump administration may be creating unintended incentives for Chinese motorcycle manufacturers to expand their presence in the U.S. market.
