AMD273 April 2022 Aftermarket Moto Design 273 April 2022 | Page 26

THE BRADLEY REPORT

THE BRADLEY REPORT

Honda Q3 " Strong Growth " by Ben Purvis

Honda ' s third quarter results show that in the first nine months of its financial year ( the period to December 31 , 2021 ) it experienced a strong recovery compared to the Covid-hit sales of 2020 . Globally , increased motorcycle sales are helping to offset a decrease in Honda ' s automobile sales caused by hangovers from the pandemic , and particularly the continuing semiconductor shortage . Honda ' s YTD group motorcycle unit sales , including affiliates and joint ventures , were up a strong 2.184 million units (+ 20.6 %) compared to the year-ago period . In contrast , the group ' s car sales in the same period declined -12.4 %. Overall , for FY22 , Honda is forecasting sales of just over 17 million bikes , including affiliates and joint ventures (+ 12.6 %). Looking at Honda and its subsidiaries alone , the forecast is for 10.695 million
For 2022 , North American Honda dealers have a trio of upgraded half liter models - the CB500X ( Adventure ), the CBR500R ( Sports , seen here ) and the CB500F ( Adventure ); plus returns for the CB1000R , CBR300R and TRX250R .
motorcycle sales globally in FY22 , up + 4.2 % on FY21 , although the ninemonth YTD sales are up + 9.7 % at 7.964 million . In Europe , FY22 sales hit 240,000
Honda bikes in the first nine months , 81,000 more units than the first nine months of 2020 . In Japan , Honda ' s domestic unit sales are up 25,000 from 155,000 to
180,000 ; North American sales were + 92,000 from 240,000 to 332,000 . Asian market sales were up more than 1.6 units to more than 10.9 million in total . In financial terms , those numbers mean Honda ' s motorcycle sales revenue is up from 1,258bn yen in the same period in FY21 to 1,620bn yen in FY22 . The operating profits from Honda ' s motorcycle business rose from 152.3bn yen in the first nine months of FY21 to 232bn yen for FY22 YTD . Despite the positive news for the first nine months of the year , the third quarter ( Oct-Dec 2021 ) saw sales slowing in several markets , leading Honda to reduce its overall FY22 forecast from 17.5 million global motorcycle sales to 17.04 million . The forecast for Europe remains unchanged at 320,000 units ; Honda has cut 460,000 units from its FY22 forecast for Asia .

Harley China Plan Stalled ?

Letter from China by Ben Purvis

QJMotor is set to become a betterknown brand outside its Chinese homeland during 2022 with a Moto3 race effort under its name and a growing ambition to offer its evergrowing range of bikes in Europe . The Moto3 effort will be with the well known Avintia team , using KTM race bikes rebranded to sport the QJMotor branding , with European sales intentions heavily suggested by QJMotor ' s presence at EICMA last year . Given that the company ' s own brand is effectively a Benelli sister brand , owned by the same Qianjiang parent company , there is no surprise that it shares many of the same frames , engines and suspension components with Benelli models , and there ' s already a dealer and distributor network in place - should it decide to enter the European market . Indeed , QJMotor ' s latest new models , revealed in Chinese approval documents , look increasingly convincing from a European perspective . It is Qianjiang , QJMotor ' s parent company , that has the deal to design and manufacture future Harley- Davidson models for sale in the Chinese market , including the longexpected H-D 338R project . That model used a Benelli chassis and a parallel twin , effectively a smaller version of the one seen in QJMotor ' s new SRV500 , but seems to have been put on hold , failing to be officially revealed and yet to be namechecked by Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz in his quarterly financial reports or analyst remarks , even though n e a r - f i n i s h e d prototypes were spied more than a year ago . If the Harley deal does result in a production bike , it might not be a million miles from the SRV500 seen here . Just as Qianjiang has a deal with Harley-Davidson , it also has an arrangement to manufacture smaller
models with MV Agusta . The first will be the newly launched MV Lucky Explorer 5.5 , which shares many of its parts with QJMotor ' s 500 cc adventure bike and the near-identical Benelli TRK502 .

Suzuki - Europe and North America Down

Figures from October-December 2021 show that Suzuki ' s global motorcycle sales grew in the third quarter of its financial year , by + 14.9 % year-onyear , reaching 8.4bn yen , with higher-end models , including the new Hayabusa , and depreciation in the value of the yen responsible for the increase . However , the increase in profit from Suzuki ' s motorcycle arm was only 0.1bn yen ( a + 7.8 % increase on the same period in 2020 ) thanks to rising raw material prices , taking it to a total of 2.3bn yen .
For the nine-month period from the start of FY21 , Suzuki ' s motorcycle sales rose to 1,206,000 , an + 8 % increase on the same period in 2020 , but still substantially lower than the 1,344,000 bikes sold in 2019 . However , in Europe , the company ' s sales for April-December 2021 were down by 1.1bn yen , from 22.8bn yen
in the same period of 2020 to 21.7bn yen in 2021 . Those numbers reflect 22,000 Suzukis sold in Europe from April-December 2021 , a drop of -29.1 % year-on-year . It was worse still in North America , where 22,000 bikes were also sold in the first three quarters of the financial year , but for a decline of -40.8 % on the same period in 2020 . There were substantial increases elsewhere , particularly Asia , where 975,000 Suzukis were sold in the period , up + 11.2 %. In total , during the first three quarters of 2021 , Suzuki ' s
net motorcycle sales came to 183.7bn yen , up 38.3bn on the same period in 2020 . For the full year to the end of March 2022 , Suzuki ' s latest forecasts predict 1,616,000 bike sales , up from 1,535,000 the previous year , with Europe and America again set to see decreases . European sales are expected to come in at just 30,000 units , down from 39,000 in FY21 , while North American buyers are only expected to account for 31,000 bikes , dropping from 46,000 in the prior period .
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