Naysayers around the world continue to predict Harley-Davidson’s drop in popularity, but it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.
While many motorcyclists say Harley-Davidson’s air-cooled designs, with their mid-20th century roots, will be the company’s downfall, the manufacturer continues to sell tons of bikes, with sales up a reported 6.2 per cent worldwide. Despite all the talk of financial woes in the U.S., the company’s sales were up 6.6 in their home country, and 5.6 per cent around the rest of the globe.
The MoCo’s biggest growth came in Latin America, where they saw a 39.2 per cent growth in sales over their 2011 numbers. Overall, the company sold 249,849 motorcycles worldwide in 2012.
Honda also released some sales numbers this week, and the results were a bit of a mixed bag.
Honda’s sales in first-world markets (North America, Europe) were up, and numbers stayed pretty steady in Japan and China as well. However, global production was down to 95 per cent of 2011’s numbers, thanks to a slump in Asia/Oceana (95 per cent of 2011 numbers) and South America (86 per cent of 2011’s record-setting numbers).
Overall, Honda sold 15,464,000 motorcycles and ATVs in 2012, down from 16,301,000 in 2011.
