Changing mobility thinking helps push up two-wheeled transport sales in Spain

MOTORBIKE and moped sales revved up in Spain in 2019 to levels not seen for a decade, a trend industry experts say is partly due to a change in public thinking on the best ways to get around.

Industry association ANESDOR said the sector registered sales of nearly 195,000 motorcyles and mopeds, more than 2,500 trikes and almost 5,000 light and heavy quads last year, 12 per cent up on 2018.

“We touched bottom in 2013, when we hardly sold 100,000, and since then we have grown at a good pace”, commented ANESDOR Secretary General Jose Maria Riaño.

“Increasingly more Spaniards get around on motorbikes and mopeds, and this has translated into very positive figures for the industry in 2019.”

He attributed growth in the sector in part to the recovery of the Spanish economy in recent years and to increasing consumer purchasing power, but underlined the impact of “the transformation of mobility”, especially in cites.

“People don’t now go from home to work and from work to home. During the day they go to the gym, go shopping, go out for something to eat”, Riaño explained.

“They need a comfortable and flexible vehicle, and the motorbike or moped responds to these needs.”

He particularly pointed to the fact that half of last year’s industry sales were small scooters, ideal for zipping round town.

The ANESDOR head maintained last year’s results are a “clear indication of where the mobility market is heading.”

Despite the good news for the motorcycle and moped market, sales last year were still some way below the 300,000 reached in 2008 before the economic crash and the more than 400,000 seen in the boom years.

ANESDOR said growing competition from vehicles like electric scooters and ordinary bicycles could make it difficult for the industry to reach pre-economic downturn totals once more.