ACEM has published the electric moped and motorcycle registrations up to September 2020 for a number of key member states. In spite of the Corona-crisis, the market is soaring.

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The electric motorcycle statistics include France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. In these countries a range of subsidies and other financial incentives are in place to push the transition to electric. The efforts are clearly paying off, with double, sometimes even triple digits’ growth. The biggest market is currently Spain, which registered almost 5,000 new e-motorcycles, followed by Italy and France.

The Corona-crisis only had a clear impact in April, when registrations definitely dwindled due to lockdown. However, this was more than compensated in May when registrations for these countries jumped to 2,428, almost 4 times more than in May 2019.

The share of e-motorcycles in total registrations still is only 2% but that is double the 2019 result. Whilst electric motorcycles have grown considerably, their ICE counterparts lost 4%.

As for mopeds, ACEM reported on Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. Total registrations for these countries increased by 12.6% to 45,205. They now have a respectable share of 6.4% in total registrations, a growth of one percentage point. Their ICE counterparts lost 4.2%. The decline of petrol mopeds and growth of electric versions has been going on for several years now. It has to be kept in mind however that moped registrations include speed pedelecs and in some countries such as Belgium and the Netherlands, these reach significant numbers.

In Belgium, for instance, the total of 11,305 mopeds includes 9,636 speed pedelecs. Total moped registrations in Belgium lost 10.8% in comparison to the same period in 2019. The loss is entirely due to traditional e-mopeds. The Flemish subsidy for these finished end 2019 and that had an immediate impact on sales. Thanks to the subsidy, e-mopeds up to 45 km/h (excl. speed pedelecs) jumped from 1,311 in 2018 to 3,018 in 2019. At the end of October 2020, only 1,617 had been registered.

In France, registrations went down by more than 30%. This is not just due to Covid-19. The statistics went into red from the start of the year. March and April were particularly bad, whereas since June some recovery appears to be underway. Apart from these disappointing results, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain posted excellent numbers with growth of 83%, 51% and 76% respectively.

All in all, the market is booming and blooming. Perhaps, the Corona-crisis has some positive impacts. People may have purchased a moped or motorcycle to avoid public transport. The good weather in Spring and Summer were perhaps also a stimulating factor. And maybe the fact the pandemic often resulted in less cars, vans and trucks on the road gave would-be motorcyclists the impression of safer riding conditions, thus winning them over.