Ninja 300 loses its Aussie crown to the TTR50

Kawasaki's Ninja 300 LAMS bike has lost its crown as the biggest selling motorcycle in Australia to the little Yamaha TT-R50 four-stroke, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI).

The peak industry organisation has just released its review of the 2015 motorcycle market Down Under, which reveals that 2375 TT-R50s were sold last year, putting it at No. 1 ahead of another mini bike, the Honda CRF50F (2343). Then follows the Honda CT110X (2114), Yamaha PW50 (1953) and then the Ninja (1947). Honda has an exclusive contract with Australia Post to supply the CT110X.

Nearly 33 percent less Ninja 300s were sold in 2015 compared to 2014 (1947 versus 2897), but it was still more than enough to dominate the sports touring category — some 498 units ahead of its Ninja 650R stablemate.

Meanwhile, the most successful newcomer on the local market was Harley-Davidson's Street 500 LAMS bike (1605 sales), with the only other fresh face to get that close being Yamaha's YZF-R3 (1156).

Overall, the Australian motorcycle market (ATV, off-road, road and scooter) remained steady in 2015, with 108,711 sales compared to 108,608 in 2014 — a rise of 0.1 percent.

The 2015 figure of 108,711 doesn't include results from two major Australian importers: Mojo Motorcycles (CFMoto, Sherco, Kymco, Land Boss and SWM) and Urban Moto Imports (MV Agusta, Benelli, Bimota, EBR, Royal Enfield, Confederate and Viper). Kymco is represented in the 2015 sales figures, as the distributorship for the brand was only recently taken over by Mojo Motorcycles.

The ATV, off-road and road segments all showed growth in 2015, up by 1.2, 0.8 and 2.6 percent respectively, with Honda the pacesetter in ATV, Yamaha in off-road and Harley-Davidson in road. Scooter sales have continued to freefall, down 22.7 percent or 1582 units.

Despite total sales dropping by 1.3 percent, Honda remains the biggest selling marque across the board, which equates to 22.57 percent of local market share, ahead of Yamaha (21.42), Kawasaki (9.82), Suzuki (9.02), Harley-Davidson (9.01), KTM (6.53), Polaris (4.69), BMW (3) Triumph (2.67) and Ducati (2.02).

Like Honda, Kawasaki, KTM and Polaris also contracted in 2015, while Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW Motorrad, Triumph and Ducati all made gains. The most impressive rises were made by Yamaha, Harley-Davidson and BMW Motorrad, up 14.2, 14.1 and 20.4 percent respectively.

The biggest selling models in the individual categories were as follows:

•    Outright: Yamaha TT-R50
•    ATV: Honda TRX500M
•    Road: Honda CTX110
•    Cruiser: Harley-Davidson Street 500
•    Scooter: Piaggio Fly 150
•    Sportstouring: Kawasaki Ninja 300
•    Under 250cc road: CT110X
•    Adventure: BMW Motorrad R 1200 GS
•    Naked: Yamaha MT-07L
•    Supersport: Honda CBR500R
•    Touring: Harley-Davidson Street Glide Special
•    Supermotard: Suzuki DR-Z400SM
•    Off-road: TT-R50
•    Enduro: Yamaha WR450F
•    Motocross: Yamaha YZ250F
•    Fun: TT-R50
•    Farm: Suzuki DR200SE
•    Trail: Honda CRF230F