2018 AUSTRALIAN MOTORCYCLE MARKET REPORT – ATV - JUST BIKES

2018 Australian Motorcycle Market Report – ATV

All brands recorded decreases in sales, with the exception of BRP, but their gain was less than one per cent.

Honda and Polaris, the titans in this ATV/SSV segment, both saw falls of 17.3 per cent, but Polaris still led the category with 5,443 sales for 2018.

Suzuki’s drop of 21.5 per cent reflected their performance in other segments in what’s been a tough 2018 generally for the brand. Yamaha and Kawasaki sales declines were less extreme, at 11.2 and 3.0 per cent, respectively.

So why the fall? Well, it’s most likely down to the aforementioned tighter lending criteria and reduction in discretionary spending caused by the volatile property market.

However, if moves by lobbyists in some states to grant the big quads and SxS vehicles recreational registration status go ahead, sales should improve in this segment, but it’s a big ‘if’ and possibly years away from coming to fruition.

That being said, the ATV/SSV segment still makes up a sizable 20.6 per cent of the overall market.

In terms of individual models, the Polaris Sportsman 570 was Australia’s best-selling ATV again in 2018, despite seeing sales fall by almost 30 per cent.

Honda’s TRX family moved around on the Top Ten table, but generally held the middle ground,

Yamaha’s YFM90R and YFZ50R kid-sized ATVs both went backwards in 2018, but these losses were offset by a big improvement for the YFM450F B/P Kodiak at the expense of its YFM450F A/P sibling. Yamaha’s YFM350 returned to the Top Ten, but 385 sales were down on 2016s high of 639.

After a recall slashed sales in 2017, Polaris’s Outlaw 50 kiddie ATV was back in the Top Ten, but 357 sales for the year isn’t a patch on the 753 deliveries this junior model achieved in 2016.

Finally, SSV (Side by Side) didn’t get its own subcategory in 2018. Instead, the FCAI provided an ‘Off Road 4 Wheel’ subcategory made up of five models, all of which were variants of the Polaris ACE, with the ACE 500 the best-seller with 245 units

Top 10 ATVs – 2018

(sales increase/decrease compared to 2017)