The Chinese motorcycle market is growing strongly due to rapidly increasing sales of electric motorcycles, which are significantly cheaper than gas motorcycles and subject to lower levels of government regulation, making them popular choices among urban consumers as an upgrade to traditional bicycles. Simultaneously demand for traditional gas motorcycles will see steady growth, with sales especially strong in rural areas, benefiting from rising income levels. The demand for the motorcycle market is projected to increase at an annual rate of 13.9 percent reaching 44.4 million units by 2011.

Urban motorcycle bans and other restrictions enforced by local governments will ensure that the gas motorcycle market will remain focused on rural areas going forward. Motorcycles with engine displacements between 50cc and 249cc will continue to dominate demand through 2011, benefiting from their suitability for use in a wide range of rural applications. Smaller models will suffer from competition from electric motorcycles, while market gains for larger machines are expected to be modest due primarily to declining sales in the military and police segments and a mediocre outlook in the transportation segment. Nevertheless, demand for larger motorcycles will see robust growth in the recreation and sport markets, although these two markets will remain relatively small in the forecast period.

Sales of electric engine motorcycles will outpace gas motorcycles and become the more dominant motorcycle segment in China in 2011, due in large part to the cost-effective and environmentally friendly characteristics of these vehicles. Being a comparatively new model, electric scooters and other more powerful machines dominate the electric market, due to their superior performance compared to other electric motorcycle models. Demand for electric motorcycles powered by li-poly batteries will outpace lead-acid powered motorcycles in the forecast period, and become the dominant battery type in the Chinese market. Advances will be driven by improvements in li-poly technology, which will enable these batteries to be used in more powerful applications. High tech electric motorcycle engines powered by hydrogen or zinc fuel cells are not expected to achieve significant market penetration in China in the near-term due to a lack of fuel cell reactant refueling infrastructure.

Bharatbook.com report into its existing market research review which provides information on the forecasts of Chinese motorcycle market

source:prminds.com