Sunday November 10 has closed the 81rd edition of EICMA, the international exhibition of two wheels, which this year also celebrated its 110 years of activity. Not at all obvious given the years we have spent due to Covid. We can already draw conclusions from this exhibition: over 600 thousand admissions registered in 6 days of the fair (never like this year), including over 770 exhibitors, 8.000 employees including journalists and media operators and many excellent guests.
Read The Italian Motorcycle and the Chinese Assault (by FEDERICO RENDINA)
The Milanese event has always been the scene of meetings for pilots of the calibre of, first and foremost James Agostini, Casey Stoner, Carlos Check out , Randy Let's face it, Andrea Iannone, Troy Bayliss, Loris Capirossi and many others. The opening of the fair was also attended by ministerial authorities, first of all the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, who after the press conference took a tour of the fair. The floor area, compared to last year, was also significantly larger, with well two additional pavilions in addition to the outdoor area for demonstration events such as the Charity Race, which this year have increased their commitments, going from just one event last year to three events with evidence e races already from Thursday, November 7. In short, if Eicma has been the most important show in the world for two wheels for years, there must be a reason.
Two-wheeler market: growth for historic brands and dominance of Chinese manufacturers
Let's move on to the market numbers, which have meant that there was a lot of interest in some brands that had been absent for a long time and have returned by popular acclaim. bmw, Ktm e Harley Davidson have attracted as much as some motorcycle Chinese, which will soon be dominatrixes of a constantly evolving market; or rather, to be precise, they already are. All the major motorcycle manufacturers rely on China for the production of engines, materials, electronic components.
In particular a house, CF Moto has brought further models and updates that are decidedly more advanced than some European manufacturers. Madness until five years ago. Instead the projects are ambitious, especially in the world of motorsport, with CF Moto world champion as a manufacturer in Moto3 and also champion with his driver David Alonso, obviously present at the fair. Most Chinese companies have found the right compromise between production costs (and therefore also sales, unattainable for any Western company) and design. Yes, because the Chinese come to us to have their motorcycles designed and put their engines in them, which sometimes also equip motorcycles from our market.
Motorcycles and scooters: numbers on the rise in 2024, but electric remains behind
Speaking of market numbers, the Ancma data show that 2023 ended very well, with almost 338 thousand new vehicles registered, with numbers comparable to 2010, a golden year for motorcycle and scooter registrations. But the data do well to hope for this 2024The first 6 months saw a 5.5% increase compared to 2023, with negative declines for electric vehicles.
For complete data we should wait for the first months of 2025, but generally the last months of the year, together with the first ones, generally show a positive trend, thanks to the fact that the dealers they can do discounts for outgoing models and other discounts to encourage purchasing in the months when the two-wheeled vehicles are less used. In fact, if you try to buy from April onwards, you will find that incentives and discounts are not so advantageous and therefore the houses fall back on winter months.
Bad electric, at least for now, which only sees negative declines compared to 2023. To date only Kawasaki She showed up at the show two years ago, with electric motorcycles and hydrogen. Perhaps too much ahead of its time. Scooters seem to have a good choice of models, obviously all Chinese, but they can't find a place in the hearts of buyers who still prefer the internal combustion engine. No big deal in this case, motorcycles and scooters have negligible consumption and do not have as much of an impact on pollution as cars and other means of transport. We just have to wait a few months to have a complete picture.
