It’s ironic that in the week when EICMA, Milan opens up, we want to talk about the declining enthusiasm for electric mobility in Europe. It’s just that the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (ACEM) released the sales numbers for Jan-Sep 2-25, and they look bad for two-wheeled electric mobility in Europe.
Europe has its strengths. It’s a relatively flat continent with spread-out urban centers. The continent likes to take leadership in design and environmental matters, and often the world follows the standards set by Europe in terms of environmental policies.
However, Europe is expensive, both in terms of living and manufacturing costs. As a two-wheeler market, it is also extremely fragmented. More than 1,000 brands participate in a market of less than two million registered two-wheelers. The market leader has just about a 10% share of the market.
First, the Numbers…
In the first three quarters of 2025, the five biggest motorcycle markets in Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK) accounted for 21,105 units in registration. This was marginally lower than 21,911 units registered in the same time period in the previous year. We are nowhere close to the 32,790 electric motorcycles that the top five markets registered in the first nine months of 2022, right after COVID-19.
It is noteworthy that ICE motorcycle sales have also dipped in the same period, from 865k units in the first nine months of 2024 to nearly 803k. As a result, the penetration rate climbed marginally, from 2.47% to 2.56%.
Mopeds fared much better than motorcycles. Europe defines mopeds as sub-50cc (or equivalent) two-wheelers with speed restricted to 45 kph. This has always been the more popular category in Europe. ICE moped sales peaked in 2020 and have been steadily declining ever since. For the first nine months of 2025, the six biggest (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK) moped markets in Europe reported registration numbers of 77,221 ICE mopeds, a 17.4% decline from 93,504 ICE mopeds registered in the same period in 2024.
Electric moped sales also declined in the same period, from 38,799 units to 33,420 units in the first nine months of 2025. A slightly lower rate of decline meant that penetration levels improved from 29.3% in the first nine months of 2024 to 30.21% for the same period in 2025. This is inching the penetration levels towards the COVID-19 high of 32.69% even though absolute sales numbers are nowhere close.
What is driving Low Sales?
Europe moved to higher emission norms as of 1st January 2025. This created a huge sales spike towards the end of 2024 and has impacted sales in 2025.