A while back I saw a story noting that Royal-Enfield, the Indian manufacturer of excellent and inexpensive motorcycles, sold slightly more than 1,000,000 motorcycles in their fiscal 2024. That sounds like a lot, and it is INDEED a large jump for Enfield since just 10 years ago they were on about 300,000. But where does that put them with respect to the other big brands?
That’s where I got a shock. The article has the spoiler in the last paragraph for everyone except Triumph, whose recent explosive success is covered here.
Here’s the dope, from low to high. All figures calendar 2024 except Enfield, as noted above, who uses a fiscal 2024.
- Triumph: about 135,000, itself a huge jump over 2023
- Harley-Davidson: just under 150,000
- Kawasaki: just under 500,000
- Royal-Enfield: 1,009,900
- Suzuki: 2.1 million
- Yamaha: 4.8 million
The curve here is CRAZY.
But we’re not done, because we haven’t talked about Honda. In 2024, Honda sold 19.6 million motorcycles, which is apparently about 1/3 of all bikes sold worldwide. Let’s add them to the chart.
The only number here that isn’t a surprise to me is Triumph. I assumed they were small. I definitely assumed Harley was bigger, and certainly also would’ve told you that the Japanese brands were closer to peers — but holy shit are they ever NOT AT ALL THAT. Honda is at 4x its closest domestic competitor, and 40x Kawasaki. There are literally no “peer” relationships here except Triumph and Harley, who are only about 10% different.
A few footnotes:
I’m pleased to share that