Motorcycle sales rev up by 16 percent in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association, Inc. (MDPPA), composed of Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha, registered a 16.7 percent growth in motorcycle sales in the first quarter, inching closer toward pre-pandemic sales.

In a statement, the MDPPA said its members sold a total of 447,429 motorcycles from January to March, close to its 451,103 pre-pandemic figure from 2019.

“Compared to the 127,000 units sold on average per month in the first quarter last year, around 149,000 motorcycles were purchased by Filipinos per month during the same period in 2023,” the group said.

“We hope that the performance of the first quarter will be sustained. The market is so volatile as influenced by internal and external variables,” MDPPA president Boying Mojica said.

“Our conservative forecast this year is 10 percent growth, in light of the headwinds of imminent recession in the US and other regions. If the existing business landscape will prevail, the 1.7 million units recorded sales in 2019 may be surpassed,”Mojica said.

The MDPPA said the automatic category or scooters accounted for 60 percent of the first quarter motorcycle sales with 269,652 units sold.

This was followed by the business units, which are used for commercial purposes, accounting for 18.6 percent of the total sales with 83,616 units sold.

In addition, mopeds or underbone motorcycles took 17.2 percent of the total sales due to their affordability, with 77,152 units sold.

Street and Big Bikes, commonly used for leisure and off-road adventure, took the remaining four percent with 17,000 units sold.

The MDPPA is one of the local motorcycle manufacturers associations recognized by the Board of Investments (BOI) under the Motor Vehicle Development Program.

Earlier data from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Automotive Federation (AAF) also showed that the Philippines’ motorcycle and scooter production jumped by 58.9 percent in the first three months of 2023 to 362,365 units, the highest growth among ASEAN countries tracked by AAF.

Both Malaysia and Thailand also posted increases in motorcycle and scooter production at 25.2 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively.

Motorcycles and scooters assembled within the ASEAN jumped by 30.4 percent to 1.11 million units.