I recently wrote a fairly detailed article discussing Harley-Davidson‘s 2024 financial performance titled Harley-Davidson’s Q4 And 2024 Full Year Financials Are Ugly. At the end of it all, it was clear that the last two years of Harley’s financial performance were far less than optimal. And according to Harley’s two top dogs, next year isn’t looking too good either. CEO Zeitz and CFO Root say that 2025 will see the MoCo’s 2025 revenue post flat to negative 5 percent earnings.
Are American Motorcycle Manufacturers In Trouble?
That got me thinking about the “other” American motorcycle company. If you are not familiar with it, that company is Polaris. It owns and builds the Indian Motorcycles brand and its motorcycles. Indian and Harley-Davidson have a history that goes way back. At times, they were partners in building the American motorcycle industry; at other times, they were enemies, with one company plotting to destroy the other.
But I digress. I wondered whether the other American motorcycle company had the same problems as Harley-Davidson. If they did, could those problems be indicators of an unhealthy, if not dying, American motorcycle industry and the “authentic cruiser” motorcycle market in general? To find out, I looked at Polaris’ Q4 and full-year financial performance investor slides.
Unfortunately, Polaris doesn’t provide a lot of segregated details about its motorcycle division’s financials. Lots of data is crammed together in the slides they use to post their data. But there are some kernels of info that give you an idea of how Polaris and its Indian Motorcycle brand did in Q4 2024 and the full year. Let’s take a look.
A 40,000 Foot Look At The Numbers
The one slide that offers the most information about Indian’s financial performance is titled On Road Q4 Summary.
Image: Polaris
A quick look at the slide will tell you that it has not been a banner year for Indian Motorcycle’s financial performance. Although it grew its market share in Q4 in unspecified areas (middleweight cruisers), for its full year, its market share went down. But compared to Harley-Davidson, there is a bit of a bright side. While Indian’s Q4 retail sales were flat, Harley’s were down 13 percent. As a whole, the industry saw high single-digit declines. So although Indian’s numbers were flat, they did better than both Harley-Davidson and the market as a whole.
In the international marketplace, the news for Indian was even better. Indian’s Q4 motorcycle retail sales rose by a high twenties percentage, while Harley-Davidson posted about a 15 percent decline. At the same time, according to Polaris numbers, the industry as a whole saw a low single-digit decline.
Both companies’ numbers are disturbing because, according to Motorcyclesdata.com, motorcycle sales worldwide reached an all-time high of 61.8 million in 2024. Below is their read of the world motorcycle sales:
“The market is pulled ahead by the strong momentum in India, the largest market, which ended up a huge +14.1%, but is growing very fast even in other regions.
In East Europe sales boomed 34%, pulled up by the Turkish outstanding performance (+34.0%).
In North America sales hit the all time record, not for USA or Canada, steady, but for the skyrocketing performance reported by Mexico (+20.1%).
New all time record beaten even by Latin America with the largest market, Brazil, up 17.4%, but with Nicaragua (+43.5%), Costa Rica (+41.7%), Honduras (+28.3%) and Panama (+32.6%) creating a real gold zone for motorcycle industry in Central America.
Western Europe (including UK) hit the best score in this century (+7.2%)
All these performances are showing as the relevance of 2-wheeler industry is shifting on these areas from China, declining 13.7% and the ASEAN, down 1.8% and with 4 out of the 8 countries in the region reporting red figures. – statistics provided by MotorcyclesData.com
If the markets worldwide are up, and Indian and Harley-Davidson offer their products internationally, why are they suffering financially?
Is It American Motorcycle Companies Or The Cruiser Market Segment?
2024’s financial performance data does not paint a rosy picture for American motorcycle companies. While it seems Indian had somewhat better financial performance than Harley-Davidson, neither of the two American motorcycle companies performed very well financially. So the question now becomes: Is it the company’s products that are the main reason for falling sales, or could it be that the entire cruiser segment as a whole is in trouble?
Unfortunately, motorcycle manufacturers don’t break out their financial performance data by model. But these two American companies now only produce “cruiser”-type motorcycles. Indian recently axed its flat-track-inspired FTR model from its product lineup, leaving only cruiser-type motorcycles for both companies.
Real Reason Uncertain
With the data we have, it’s difficult to say with certainty what is afflicting American motorcycle manufacturers versus many of their competitors. Is the world telling American motorcycle manufacturers that their motorcycles are no longer relevant in today’s market? In the US, would riders prefer to ride a motorcycle that is potentially lighter, easier to ride, and more practical than many large-bore cruisers? Is it just American pricing that is driving riders away from American brands?
What do you think is hurting the American motorcycle manufacturers the most? Let us know in the comments below.
