Motorcycle sales up 16.7% in Q1 amid high inflation

CEBU, Philippines — Amid inflation and economic challenges, Filipino consumers are still buying motorcycle units this year, as the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association, Inc., (MDPPA) reported a 16.7 percent increase in sales for the first quarter of 2023.

Compared to the 127 thousand units sold on average per month in the first quarter of 2022, around 149 thousand motorcycles were purchased by Filipinos per month during the same period this 2023.

According to the MDPPA report, this development makes the three-month totals of 2023 the best-recorded sales in comparison to the first quarters of the three previous pandemic years, including 2020, 2021, and 2022.

A total of 447,429 motorcycles were sold between January and March 2023. Such a number is only about 3,500 less than the 451,103 pre-pandemic figure from 2019, the MDPPA report indicated.

With this encouraging performance, MDPPA president Boying Mojica said the industry is pinning  a conservative 10 percent growth forecast for 2023, “in light of the headwinds of imminent recession in the United States and other regions.”

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

If the existing business landscape will prevail, the 1.7 million units recorded sales in 2019 may be surpassed, Mojica added.

MDPPA is an association of the four big motorcycle manufacturers in the Philippines namely: Honda Philippines, Kawasaki Motors Philippines, Suzuki Philippines, and Yamaha Motor Philippines.

In March 2023m the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported an increase in motor vehicles and motorcycle loans by 10.5 percent.