In Europe, sales of motorcycles and scooters, both combustion and electric, show a similar trend: while motorcycles are growing, scooters are suffering in all reference countries, regardless of the type of propulsion.
Sales of electric motorcycles and scooters in Europe in 2023 – After nine months of data collection, we can already have a clear picture of the two-wheel market in Europe in 2023: Europeans are still buying motorcycles while mopeds, both electric and thermals, mark a strong retreat. This phenomenon is evident in all the main countries, including Italy, where the motorcycle market recorded an almost 20% increase while mopeds dropped by 13%. Specifically, electric scooters in the L1e category, equivalent to 50cc combustion engines, recorded a -26.9% in Europe and a -16,1% in Italy.
Italians purchased 271.552 two-wheeled vehicles in the first nine months of the year, out of the 873.985 registered in the main European countries of reference; Italy thus confirms itself as the leading market on the old continent. Behind Italy we find Germany with 190.490 units and France, with 168.118.
In the electric two-wheeler sector, registrations in Europe stopped at 77.671 units compared to 100.431 in the same nine months of 2022, with a drop of 23%. Here the leading country is France, with 20.987 units sold, almost double that of Italy. The European decline was more significant for mopeds (category L1e, equivalent to 50cc) compared to the more powerful vehicles which held up more. The data is however very negative, settling below the values of both 2022 and 2021 and just above those of 2020, when the offer of electric two-wheeled vehicles was decidedly lower.
These data, certainly negative, must be read in a context in which mopeds in general and not just electric-powered ones are declining. Internal combustion mopeds in the first nine months of 2023 fell by 25% with very uneven numbers in Europe. In Italy, for example, the drop was 13,5%, in Spain just over 2% but in France sales fell by 18,7% and in Germany and Holland by more than 40%. The European figure is the worst in the last five years.
Source: ACEM
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