China overtakes India to become the world's largest motorcycle market in 2020

In 2020, China's motorcycle market once again ranks first in the world. India has suffered heavy losses due to the rapid spread of the epidemic. It is expected to lose 20% of its sales throughout the year.

The Chinese market has become one of the toughest markets in the world due to strict domestic epidemic control.

After a 20% loss in the first quarter, mainly due to the impact of the epidemic, the market began to recover, with sales rising 3.0% in the second quarter and 7.6% in the third quarter. This positive trend persisted even in the fourth quarter, with a surge of 5.4% in November following a 12.0% increase in October, with sales of 1.6 million and after the first 11 months of 2020, sales reached 15.7 million, The overall increase was 0.4%.

The COVID-19 has changed the world, accelerated the economic transformation of the motorcycle industry, and changed the development trend of the global motorcycle industry.

After the introduction of stricter motorcycle emissions and usage rules, China's motorcycle market lost its global No. 1 position in 2016, with sales falling by millions, while India's rapidly growing market took the lead.

In 2019, the combined number of mopeds, motorcycles, scooters and tricycles in India was 19 million, down almost 14% from the record 2018. The Indian motorcycle market took a hit in 2020, with total sales falling to 14.8 million units (-23.3%).

However, sales recovered strongly in the fourth quarter, with a 32% increase in December, mainly as resilience in rural areas boosted the Indian manufacturer's market share. The range of data covered includes electric vehicles, mopeds, scooters. In addition, the data includes commercial tricycles that are very popular in India.

While India's urban markets are still struggling due to the pandemic, the relatively unaffected rural and urban markets have seen sequential improvement in sales, allowing the industry to slowly recover.

However, the two- and three-wheeler market reported its biggest contraction ever, following a 13.2% drop in sales in 2019. The industry slumped in the first (-24.5%) and second (-72.2%) quarters before recovering, with sales falling another 3.9% in the third quarter. Finally in the fourth quarter, the market grew at a double-digit rate, up 16.9% year over year in October, 13.6% in November, and 32.5% in December, however, annual sales of 14.8 million were down 23.3% year over year.

Hero MotoCorp is the second largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India thanks to its huge presence in the country. In mid-2020, they further strengthened their competitive position, increasing their market share to 37%, while some of their main rival and former partner, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) lost its 23.8% Indian market share .

Other manufacturers posted losses in 2010: Bajaj Auto (-22.4%), TVS Motor (-20.6%), Royal Enfield (-33.3%), Suzuki (-30.0%) and Yamaha (-18.6%) all saw sales decline. Meanwhile, Japanese brands' share fell to 30.7 percent from 35 percent last year.