Articles

The economy shows few signs of recovering and consequently all powersports markets are suffering, to varying degrees. The PWC market has continued its downward trend, with sales estimated to be down 30% by season-end, and the near future doesn’t look much better.

2009 Season End PWC Sales

The financial meltdown in the final week of September 2008 effectively brought the U.S. PWC market to a halt for the 2008 season, and it appears that the 2009 season has continued the downward trend, with sales estimated to be down 30% through May. The outlook for the PWC market looks decidedly bleak in the near term- unless the decline in consumer confidence and the mortgage and foreclosure crises are resolved quickly. In fact, it’s possible that Honda could drop out of the market this year

Gas prices boosted sales in 2008 but caused dealers to overorder. Now inventories are high. Is the party over? There’s no denying that 2008 was a great year to be selling scooters in the U.S., but sales for

Over the last six years, the most impressive performing U.S. market in powersports retail
sales has been side-by-sides such as the
Polaris Ranger series and the Yamaha Rhino.
In 2007, the market hit 265,000 units, an
11 percent increase over the previous year.
However, sales appear to have flattened out
in 2008. Last year, the market was heading for another
record sales year when things came to
a grinding halt due to the meltdown of the
financial and credit markets. UTV sales have been on a steady decline and aren’t likely to improve until late this year, if at all

During the first three months of 2008, our staff conducted our annual survey of over 200 North American builders of diesel powerboats to determine what changes had occurred between the 2007 market and that for 2006. For 2007, Power Products Marketing estimates total North American diesel powerboat production amounted to about 4,225 boats, which was a 16.5% decline from our revised estimate of 5,065 boats for 2006. North American production had jumped nearly 15% in 2004 and another 10% in 2005 to a record level, mostly attributable to a surge in export business.

SUMMARY

Even though the U.S, powersports reail sales market was soft last year, with most segments declining, there was a bright spot: UTVs, those side-by-side, off-road vehicles that can carry up to six passengers. Retail sales of UTVs climbed again last year, finishing the year at about 263,000 units, up nearly 11%. The big winner last year was Polaris, boosted by the overwhelming success of its 800 EFI RZR. Polaris was the leading supplier of UTVs in North America last year, grabbing nearly 20% of the golf and turf type UTVs.

Contrary to some early reports you may have read, the overall scooter market in 2007 actually experienced a slight downturn. Sales of scooter units by the OEMs reporting to the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) were flat compared to the volumes sold in 2006, whereas scooter sales by the non-traditional brands actually declined. Total estimated sales were 149,000 units, a decrease of over 5% from the prior year.

Editor’s note: Power Products Marketing, a Minneapolis research firm, has been tracking the non-traditional brand ATV market for over ten years. This market consists of distributors of ATVs manufactured in Taiwan, China and to a lesser extent South Korea who do not report sales figures to the MIC. It does not include the Youth models that MIC reporting traditional OEMs such as Arctic Cat, Polaris, Can-Am, Kawasaki and Suzuki are sourcing from Taiwanese manufacturers. This report was prepared by Matthew Camp, a powersports analyst with the firm.

Despite warm weather and inventory dumping, economic woes provide weak summer sales

In our previous PWC article looking at the May year-to-date sales for 2007 we had expressed some optimism that while the market had only posted about a 1% increase over the same period last year, a strong summer could boost sales by season end to 2-3% over the 2006 volume. It is now evident that the expected boost as we entered the most important summer months did not happen and sales were flat to slightly down by season end.

2007 Season End PWC Sales

Scooters have continued to increase in popularity with U.S. consumers. Total estimated sales for 2006 were over 157,000, up more than 6% over the prior year. More people are impacted by the soaring price of gas so the appeal of flex-fuels, alternative power, lower emission vehicles and more fuel-efficient modes of transportation increases, and as a result the scooter market is experiencing a renaissance of sorts.