Motorcycle market: why are used sales falling faster than new?

With more than one million vehicles sold every year, motorcycles represent a high-volume market comparable with many major consumer equipment sectors.

In 2024, the French market fell by 9% compared with 2023, representing around 100,000 fewer registrations.

But the detailed figures reveal something unexpected.

The sharpest decline did not come from new motorcycles. With 280,000 registrations, the new market fell by just 1%.

Instead, it was the second-hand market that contracted sharply, falling 11% to 788,000 registrations.

This is counter-intuitive. When household budgets are under pressure, used products would normally be expected to hold up better than new ones.

So why is the opposite happening? What does the ratio of almost three used motorcycles sold for every new one tell us about the market? And how significant is the electric motorcycle market today?

Key figures for the French motorcycle market

Key takeaways for 2024:

– more than one million motorcycles sold each year in France
– total market down 9% compared with 2023
– around 100,000 fewer registrations in one year
– 788,000 used motorcycles registered, down 11%
– 280,000 new motorcycles registered, down 1%
– electric motorcycles account for around 5% of the market

Almost three used motorcycles for every new one

This ratio is essential to understanding the market.

With 788,000 used motorcycles compared with 280,000 new ones, the French motorcycle market is overwhelmingly driven by second-hand transactions even more so than the car market.

This has a direct consequence.

The overall motorcycle market is largely determined by what happens in the used segment. When second-hand registrations fall by 11%, most of the market’s total volume falls with them, even if sales of new motorcycles remain relatively resilient.

It also explains why the overall 9% decline in the market is almost entirely attributable to second-hand vehicles.

Why are used motorcycle sales falling faster than new ones?

The trend is worth examining because it runs counter to the usual economic intuition.

Several factors may help explain it and should be considered as possible interpretations.

A volume effect

The second-hand market is almost three times larger than the new market.

Any contraction in demand therefore translates into much larger absolute volumes of lost transactions.

Different types of buyers

The new motorcycle market may attract more committed riders, professional customers or buyers who can access financing solutions.

Used motorcycles, meanwhile, are often bought and sold directly between individuals, making these purchases easier to postpone.

Consumers may postpone the purchase altogether

In the automotive market, budget pressure can encourage consumers to move from a new vehicle to a cheaper used one.

Motorcycles follow a somewhat different logic.

Because a motorcycle is often a secondary vehicle or a leisure purchase, tighter household budgets may lead consumers not to trade down, but instead to cancel or postpone the purchase entirely.

This may be the most important lesson from the figures:

the decline in the motorcycle market may reflect disappearing demand rather than demand simply moving towards cheaper products.

A market driven by both pleasure and practical use

The decline in 2024 also needs to be considered in context, as the market had grown strongly in previous years.

Two distinct forces had supported that growth.

Pleasure

Motorcycling has a particularly strong leisure and emotional dimension: weekend rides, recreational use and a personal attachment to the machine itself.

This is much more pronounced than in many other forms of mobility.

Practical mobility

Motorcycles and scooters can also serve a highly practical purpose, particularly for commuting in large cities where they offer an alternative to congestion and parking constraints.

This dual nature makes the market particularly revealing from an economic perspective.

When household budgets come under pressure, leisure spending is often the first to be reconsidered, while purchases linked to essential or practical mobility tend to prove more resilient.

Electric motorcycles remain a niche market

At around 5% of registrations, electric motorcycles remain far behind the automotive market, where fully electric cars accounted for 17.4% of new European registrations.

Several motorcycle-specific constraints may help explain the difference.

Battery range remains more limited, battery weight has a particularly significant impact on relatively lightweight vehicles, and many leisure riders remain attached to characteristics such as sound, riding sensations and long-distance autonomy all aspects that electric powertrains fundamentally change.

The comparison with the European car fleet is revealing.

In both markets, the electric transition is a long-term process, and there remains a substantial gap between the prominence of electrification in public debate and its current share of actual registrations.

Key takeaways

The French motorcycle market represents more than one million sales each year.

In 2024, registrations fell by 9%, representing around 100,000 fewer transactions than in 2023.

The decline was driven overwhelmingly by the second-hand market, where registrations dropped 11% to 788,000 units, while new motorcycle registrations fell by just 1% to 280,000.

With almost three used motorcycles sold for every new one, the second-hand segment remains the true volume driver of the market.

Electric motorcycles, meanwhile, account for only around 5% of registrations, making electrification a still relatively early-stage phenomenon compared with the automotive sector.

👉 Discover the Cetelem Observatory Automotive 2026 study
👉 Back to the November 2025 Mobility & Consumption Minute on BNP Paribas Personal Finance