Motorcycle sales up 6% to over 1.2 million at end-September


More motorcycles were added to Philippine roads as sales swelled to over 1.2 million units as of end-September this year, the latest Federation of Asian Motorcycle Industries (FAMI) report showed.

FAMI's updated database this week showed that the five member-companies of the Motorcycle Development Program Participants Association (MDPPA) in the Philippines sold a combined 1,235,780 motorcycles and scooters from January to September 2024, up 6.1 percent from 1,164,895 during the same nine-month period last year.

In September alone, 141,202 motorcycles were sold, 16.1 percent higher than 121,575 units a year ago. September tallied the second-highest monthly sales so far, after May's 144,210 new motorcycles.

Among FAMI's seven member-associations, which besides MDPPA included motorcycle industry groups in Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, Philippine end-September sales were the third-biggest after Indonesia's 4,872,496 and Vietnam's 1,892,873.

In terms of domestic motorcycle production, MDPPA members assembled 1,012,400 units during the first nine months, two percent more than 992,415 a year ago.

September production rose 28.3 percent to 119,107 from 92,861 in the same month last year.

Based on the latest FAMI data, Philippine end-September motorcycle assembly figures were only surpassed by Vietnam's 2,159,826.

MDPPA groups the local subsidiaries of four Japanese motorcycle brands Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha as well as Indian brand TVS, which joined the 51-year-old industry association last year.

It means that MDPPA data neither included sales nor production of Chinese, Taiwanese and other brands, hence an understatement of the overall performance of the domestic motorcycle industry that also sells imported units.