The first quarter of 2013 ended down by 23.8%, with Southern Europe continuing to be a motive of serious concern. In March the European PTW market posted the year-on-year decline of 30.6% over the same period in 2012. While the EU PTW market had lost 12.7% in 2012, for the first quarter of 2013 registration figures indicate the enduring effects of the current economic crisis on consumer's demand.

March Powered Two-Wheeles sales in Europe totalled 115.470 units, with first quarter sales at 228.845. In Q1 2013 motorcycle registrations fell 22.7%, while moped sales were down 26.5%.

The cause of the acceleration of this negative trend can be explained by the negative performance of Europe’s second largest market, namely Italy with -37% for all categories (2-, 3- and 4-wheeled L-category vehicles). Spain also lost 22.4%, while Greece -31.3%.

Following last year's strong volume reduction in the Mediterranean countries, during the first quarter of 2013 Continental Europe seems to be following in the same wake: Germany was down 16%, France -21%, Poland -32.8%, The Netherlands -24.4%, Austria -25%.

The seasonal effect can partly explain this disappointing performance. The extreme rigour of last winter all over Europe is a text book example of how far weather conditions can influence the PTW market.However, a worsening of the situation such as this reflects deeper economic and political uncertainty in affected European countries which translate into a loss of cusomers’ purchasing inclination bringing the market to a halt. Eventually, the onset of spring will certainly have a positive impact on sales, possibly trimming the accumulated losses.