Market Research, Motorcycle Market research

The Flag on the Stand: What EICMA 2026 Reveals About China’s Advance in Europe’s Motorcycle Market

by Francis Rozange | Nov 3, 2026 | 0 comments

On 28 October 2026, six days before the gates of the Milan motorcycle show open on the Rho fairground, the European Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers published the kind of numbers any trade body would be glad to release. New motorcycle registrations in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom reached 944,129 units in the first nine months of the year, 14.6 per cent more than in the same period of 2025, and all five markets grew. The association’s secretary general spoke of “a lasting interest from European consumers.” What the release could not say, because it contains no figures by brand, is who is winning that interest.

The clearest answer comes from Spain, where the national association of two-wheeler companies, ANESDOR, publishes brand tables. Between January and September 2026 the best-selling motorcycle brand in the country, scooters excluded, was Chinese, with 13,803 registrations, 61.8 per cent more than a year earlier. The Japanese brand in second place fell 11.2 per cent to 11,470, having registered 12,911 in the same months of 2025, when the Chinese brand stood at 8,530. Four Chinese brands sat in the Spanish top ten. As EICMA opens its press days on 3 November, the useful question is where the Chinese advance is real, where it is overstated, and what the show floor can reveal about its next stage.

The exhibitor catalogue as a census of the industry

EICMA’s organisers announced on 14 October that the 83rd edition would be the largest yet held at the Rho site, with ten halls, more than 300,000 square metres, 754 exhibitors and 2,120 brands from 52 countries, 74 per cent of them from abroad. Press and trade visitors have the halls on 3 and 4 November, and the public is admitted from 5 to 8 November. The organisers’ online exhibitor catalogue tags every entry with a country, and on 28 October it listed 2,136 exhibitor and brand entries. Of these, 770 carried a Chinese country code, 550 an Italian one and 130 a Taiwanese one, which makes China the largest national contingent at the Milan show, ahead of the host country itself.

Filtering the same catalogue to the vehicles sector, which covers mopeds, motorcycles, scooters, three-wheelers and electric bicycles, gives 535 entries, of which 301 are Chinese, 84 Italian and 21 Taiwanese. These counts come from a tally of the organiser’s public list made for this article on 28 October; they are not an official statistic and may move as late entries are added. They also understate Chinese reach. At least two brands under Chinese control exhibit through Italian-registered companies and therefore appear under the Italian flag. One maker whose new models EICMA’s own news pages introduce as “the Chinese manufacturer” is listed in the catalogue with an Italian country code. National labels already fail to describe who owns what in this business.

A Chinese supply chain has also come to Milan

Most of the Chinese entries are not motorcycle brands at all. Reading the list line by line shows makers of clutches, brake hoses, belts, shock absorbers, lamps, batteries, tyres, gloves and helmets, from Chongqing, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu. Many of them exhibit under the banner of national trade-promotion bodies or exhibition agencies, whose names appear as the umbrella exhibitor beside dozens of smaller companies, in one case more than a hundred, and the China Electric Two-Wheelers Association is listed in its own right. Hall 24 alone holds 464 catalogue entries, 444 of them Chinese, which makes it in effect a national pavilion for China’s two-wheeler trade, even though the organisers do not describe it in those terms.

For an analyst, the supplier presence matters as much as the brands. A finished motorcycle brand can enter a European market through an importer and a few dozen dealers, but it stays there only if parts, accessories and replacement components flow reliably and at predictable cost. The sheer number of Chinese component makers seeking European buyers in Milan suggests a supply base that is looking beyond its domestic customers, towards European assemblers, distributors and independent workshops as well as Chinese brands already present in Europe. The catalogue shows that the Chinese presence at EICMA in 2026 is an industrial phenomenon rather than a handful of ambitious marques renting large stands near the entrance.

Europe’s registrations recovered strongly in 2026

The background to the show is a market in clear recovery. According to the association’s release of 28 October, motorcycle registrations rose in every country it monitors during the first nine months of 2026: Germany by 24.1 per cent to 173,947 units, Spain by 20.9 per cent to 221,236, the United Kingdom by 14.6 per cent to 84,114, Italy by 10.9 per cent to 313,095 and France by 4.8 per cent to 151,737. Moped registrations in the six markets it follows for that category rose 7 per cent to 118,544. The association says its five motorcycle markets account for about 80 per cent of registrations in the European Union and the United Kingdom combined.

Part of the rebound is arithmetic. In 2025 the same five markets registered 1,002,848 motorcycles, 12.9 per cent fewer than in 2024, and Germany alone fell 35.7 per cent. The association said the exceptional 2024 figure had been significantly driven by stock registrations made ahead of the new emissions standard, a pull-forward effect examined in an earlier article on this site, and it described 2025 as the anticipated correction. A weak base flatters 2026, yet the association also says that registrations of both conventional and electric motorcycles are now well above the levels recorded for the same period since 2019, which suggests that the recovery is more than a technical bounce.

Spain shows how quickly a brand table can turn over

ANESDOR’s online statistics separate motorcycles from scooters and mopeds, and on 28 October its motorcycle page showed 97,099 registrations for the year to the end of September, against 78,615 a year earlier, a rise of 23.51 per cent. The leading Chinese brand took first place, another Chinese brand ranked sixth with 6,234 units, a third ranked ninth with 3,643 units after growth of 225 per cent, and a fourth ranked tenth with 2,788. Adding those four figures gives 26,468 motorcycles, or a little more than 27 per cent of the Spanish motorcycle market. Because the association publishes only the top ten, that sum is a floor, and the true Chinese share of Spanish motorcycle registrations is higher.

The established brands tell the other half of the story. Besides the Japanese brand that lost 11.2 per cent, a German premium maker slipped 3.2 per cent to 8,626 units and another Japanese manufacturer fell 4.7 per cent to 6,479, while a second Japanese brand grew 19.6 per cent to 9,906. An Austrian manufacturer rose 89 per cent and a Spanish brand more than tripled its volume from a small base. In a market that expanded by almost a quarter, three of the four established brands in the top five registered fewer motorcycles than a year before. That is the signature of share transfer rather than shared growth: the additional demand went disproportionately to newcomers, and some existing demand followed it.

Three best-selling models from a single Chinese maker

The Spanish model table is even more concentrated. The three best-selling motorcycles in the country between January and September 2026 all came from the leading Chinese brand: an 800cc rally-styled adventure model with 4,785 registrations, against 252 a year earlier; a 900cc adventure model with 3,009, down 31.1 per cent; and a 625cc adventure model with 2,037, up 63.5 per cent. A second Chinese maker’s 800cc adventure bike ranked eighth with 1,594 registrations, more than four times its 2025 volume, and a Chinese 125cc model ranked sixth with 1,878. The best-selling Japanese motorcycle, a 700cc naked bike, came fifth with 1,934 units, barely changed from the previous year. Adventure styling at mid-range displacement dominates the top of the table.

The fall of the 900cc model deserves as much attention as the rise of its sibling. It registered 4,366 units in the first nine months of 2025, more than any other model in this year’s top ten managed in that period, and then lost almost a third of its volume within a year, apparently displaced by the newer 800cc model from the same maker. For product research, a range in which the leading product is replaced by its own successor inside twelve months changes the questions worth asking. A buyer survey conducted once a year can describe a model already superseded, and a benchmark built around one flagship can miss its deliberate cannibalisation.

Scooters, rental fleets and the daily commute in Spain

Scooters are the larger part of the Spanish market, with 122,495 registrations in the first nine months, up 19.7 per cent. A Japanese brand still leads with 29,937 units, up 4.7 per cent, but the second-placed brand is a Chinese manufacturer whose scooter registrations rose 130 per cent to 21,394. Two of its models rank third and fourth among Spanish scooters, with 7,707 and 7,437 registrations, the second absent from the 2025 figures. A second Japanese brand is third, and two Taiwanese brands follow in fourth and fifth place. Two further Chinese brands appear lower in the scooter top ten, with a little more than 3,300 units each. Adding the three brands whose Chinese origin is confirmed by the show organiser’s own materials gives 28,063 scooters, close to 23 per cent of the segment and, again, a floor.

ANESDOR’s release of 1 October adds detail. In September alone the Spanish light-vehicle market registered 30,696 units, 21.9 per cent more than a year earlier, and scooters accounted for 55.9 per cent of the month’s volume after growing 27.9 per cent. Private buyers made up 91 per cent of the market, while rental registrations rose 33.5 per cent. The association’s secretary general, José María Riaño, described “a structural change in mobility” in which motorcycles and light vehicles gain presence month after month, and linked it to rising interest rates, high inflation and increasingly expensive fuel. He also warned that the same factors remain a headwind for consumption, a caution that applies directly to price-led brands.

Italy, the host market, is led by scooters

Italy, which hosts the show and is the largest of the five markets the European association monitors, has a different shape. According to figures from the Italian industry association, Confindustria ANCMA, reported on 1 October, Italy registered 324,911 powered two-wheelers between January and September 2026, 10.87 per cent more than a year earlier. Scooters rose 15.1 per cent to 192,668, motorcycles 4.7 per cent to 120,364 and mopeds 10.5 per cent to 11,879. In September alone the market grew 7.9 per cent to 33,061 units. The association’s president, Mariano Roman, observed that scooter sales by September had already exceeded the volumes recorded by November 2025, highlighted 20 per cent growth in the classes up to 250cc, and attributed the scooter’s gains mainly to affordability and urban use.

Model rankings published by Italian specialist press show Chinese brands inside the top ten without dominating it. The best-selling motorcycle in Italy between January and September was a German premium adventure model with 2,922 units, followed by two Japanese adventure models; a Chinese 450cc adventure bike ranked sixth with 1,974 units and a Chinese 625cc adventure model tenth with 1,681. Among scooters, Chinese models ranked fourth, sixth and tenth, with 6,652, 6,105 and 5,364 registrations. Adventure models now account for 38.2 per cent of Italian motorcycle sales, with off-road adventure bikes up 22.2 per cent and classic models down 17.8 per cent, while scooters between 126 and 250cc have grown 42.4 per cent.

Historic Italian names under Chinese ownership

In September, the single best-selling motorcycle in Italy, with 443 registrations, was a 900cc adventure model from a historic marque based in Pesaro. The brand’s own website explains that it was acquired in 2005 by two companies, with the Chinese motorcycle manufacturer from Zhejiang taking charge of production and the other partner leading administration, design and marketing from Pesaro. In the EICMA catalogue the Chinese manufacturer carries a Chinese code, while the Pesaro company exhibits as an Italian firm. A shopper in Milan sees an old Italian name. A registration analyst sees a Chinese-controlled brand that topped the Italian motorcycle chart in September, and a crude count of Chinese brands that leaves it out will misread the market.

The Austrian manufacturer whose growth appears in the Spanish and German tables was described by a German motorcycle magazine on 20 August as being followed closely in the rankings by its “Chinese partner”, a manufacturer from Hangzhou whose plant in that city has built motorcycles with it since 2020. A month later the same magazine reported that the partner had overtaken it in the German brand table for the year. A brand with a long Italian history is controlled from China, and the place where a motorcycle is designed can be far from the place where it is built. For competitive research, “Chinese” must therefore be defined before it is counted: by brand ownership, place of manufacture, engine origin or engineering location. Each definition yields a different market share.

France and Germany show a smaller Chinese foothold

In France the Chinese advance is visible but less dramatic. An observatory run by a French motorcycle insurer with a registration-data company counted 152,768 new motorcycles registered between January and September 2026, 5 per cent more than a year earlier, within a total two-wheeler market of 765,502 units including used vehicles, which fell 2 per cent. Counting new and used registrations together, adventure bikes above 400cc grew 11 per cent to 70,473 units, while roadsters above 400cc fell 5 per cent. The three best-selling new models were all Japanese: two 125cc maxi-scooters and a naked motorcycle of about 700cc. In the observatory’s brand ranking, a Chinese manufacturer ranked seventh and a second Chinese brand tenth, while Japanese brands remain far ahead at the top.

Germany, the market that fell hardest in 2025 and has rebounded most in 2026, shows the same pattern at a lower level. In August, according to brand tables published by a German motorcycle magazine, a Chinese manufacturer ranked fourth among motorcycles with 1,090 registrations, an 11.3 per cent share and growth of 429 per cent, behind two Japanese brands and a German premium maker. A second German magazine reported on 18 September that over the first eight months the same brand ranked fifth with 5,591 motorcycles and a 6.2 per cent share, ahead of several European, Japanese and American rivals. German specialist publications print figures that do not always reconcile with one another, but the direction is consistent with what Spain shows in full and France in part.

The contest is fought in the middle of the market

Across these markets, the Chinese advance concentrates in a recognisable zone: adventure and touring motorcycles between roughly 400 and 900cc, and scooters from 125 to roughly 350cc. That zone matters because of the European licence system, under which riders on the intermediate A2 licence buy restricted versions of mid-sized motorcycles before moving to larger ones. One Chinese maker’s update of its 699cc three-cylinder sports model, announced on EICMA’s website on 26 October, illustrates the approach: 95 horsepower at full power, a 35-kilowatt version for A2 riders, cornering ABS, traction control, cruise control, a quickshifter and adjustable suspension. The page said that price and availability were expected to be announced at the show.

In the Spanish survey discussed below, 22 per cent of prospective buyers of a new motorcycle said their main motive was to move to a larger engine, second only to weekend touring at 25 per cent. A rider moving from a 125cc scooter to a first full-size motorcycle, or from an A2 bike to an unrestricted one, compares specification sheets and monthly payments more than heritage. That is the moment at which a manufacturer offering a well-equipped adventure-styled motorcycle at a lower price than a comparable European or Japanese model can win a customer with no prior loyalty to lose, and keep that customer for the next purchase if the first ownership experience is a good one.

Spanish riders say price comes first

The best available evidence on buyer motives comes from a mobility survey prepared by a Spanish online classifieds portal with ANESDOR’s collaboration and published by the association on 22 September 2026. In it, 55 per cent of respondents said they planned to buy a motorcycle in the coming months, against 43 per cent in 2025. More than half of potential buyers, 55 per cent, said they would consider a Chinese brand. Competitive prices were the main attraction for 77 per cent, more innovative technology for 11 per cent and curiosity about new brands for 6 per cent. The average budget for a new motorcycle fell to 9,116 euros from 11,064 euros in 2025, while the budget for a used one rose to 5,067 euros from 4,668 euros.

The release does not describe the sample size or the method, and respondents reached through a classifieds platform are not necessarily representative of new-vehicle buyers. The survey also records that only 20 per cent of prospective buyers now lean towards a new motorcycle and 50 per cent towards a used one, a shift that sits uneasily beside a new-vehicle market growing by more than 20 per cent. That gap between stated intention and registered behaviour is precisely what customer research exists to measure, and a firm such as CSM International would treat a figure like “55 per cent would consider a Chinese brand” as the start of an enquiry into who would actually buy, at what price difference and with what dealer nearby.

After-sales service is the main reason buyers hesitate

The same survey identifies the brake on Chinese growth with unusual clarity. For the 45 per cent of riders who would not consider a Chinese brand, the main reason given was doubt about after-sales service and the availability of spare parts, alongside what the release calls prejudices about the durability of materials. Those are not objections that advertising can answer. They are answered over years, through dealer density, parts stocks and warranty handling. The survey also found that the average motorcycle in respondents’ hands was nine years old, that 43 per cent were more than ten years old and that 68 per cent of riders expected to sell their current machine, a reminder of how long ownership cycles are.

Brand loyalty, on the survey’s evidence, is weak enough to make the after-sales test decisive. Only 18 per cent of respondents said they would buy the same brand again, while 37 per cent said they would switch. A low-loyalty market rewards a newcomer at the first purchase and punishes it at the second if parts are slow or resale values collapse. The motorcycles registered by Chinese brands in 2024, 2025 and 2026 will begin to reach the Spanish and Italian used markets over the next few years, and their prices there will say more about durable acceptance than any registration table. Public data on those residual values are still thin.

Where a motorcycle is built is a separate question

A different Spanish measure circulated in September. A Spanish motoring website, analysing registration records from the national traffic directorate, reported that 41.52 per cent of motorcycles registered in Spain in August 2026 had been made in China, after 42 per cent in July. That figure measures place of manufacture, not ownership of the brand, and the two can diverge in both directions: a European or Japanese brand may build some models in China, and a Chinese brand may assemble elsewhere. The website did not publish unit counts, and its definition of a motorcycle may not match ANESDOR’s separation of motorcycles from scooters, so the figure cannot be compared directly with the association’s brand tables for the same months.

The coexistence of the two measures is itself instructive. A reader who saw “more than 40 per cent made in China” alongside “about 27 per cent for the top Chinese brands” might conclude that the sources contradict each other, when they simply count different things. For a manufacturer weighing a response, the distinction has real consequences. A threat from Chinese brands calls for an answer on price, product and dealer networks, whereas a reliance on Chinese factories raises questions of supply security and of exposure to any future change in trade policy. Treating the two as one problem produces the wrong answer to both.

What Chinese export figures can and cannot tell us

Behind the European tables lies a production machine of great scale, but the published numbers describing it do not agree. The South China Morning Post, citing Chinese customs data, reported on 30 July that China exported a record 26.2 million motorcycles in the first half of 2026, worth 11.28 billion dollars, up 23.2 per cent in volume and 26.3 per cent in value. An Italian specialist magazine reported on 1 October that China exported 10,294,100 motorcycles between January and August 2026, up 17.77 per cent, and that about 63 per cent of Chinese sales went abroad. The magazine did not name its source.

The customs figure for six months is more than twice the magazine’s figure for eight. A gap of that size cannot be explained by the difference in period and most likely reflects different definitions of what counts as a motorcycle, for example whether electric two-wheelers, small mopeds or unassembled kits are included, but neither report sets out its scope, so the discrepancy should be flagged rather than resolved. The customs total implies an average value of about 430 dollars per unit, a level more consistent with light electric two-wheelers than with full-size motorcycles. Neither report gives export volumes to Europe. Estimates of Chinese capacity aimed at Europe rest on incomplete public data.

The incumbents are answering with smaller engines

The models that the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore listed on 24 October as the ten most eagerly awaited at EICMA show how established manufacturers intend to respond. The list includes two 450cc models from a German premium maker, a 440cc model from an American heavyweight specialist, a 500cc four-cylinder sports model from a Japanese manufacturer, a 500cc travel-oriented model from a historic Italian brand, a 750cc adventure model from an Indian manufacturer, 900cc touring and adventure models from two Japanese makers, a 2027 version of an Italian superbike and a British classic. Not one of the ten comes from a Chinese brand, even though Chinese models fill five places in Spain’s motorcycle top ten.

It also shows incumbents moving down in displacement, into the 400 to 500cc band where many riders take their first full-size motorcycle and where a Chinese 450cc adventure model already ranks sixth in Italy’s nine-month table. A premium brand launching a 450cc model accepts that its range must open to riders who would otherwise start elsewhere and might never return. Whether that works depends on the prices at which the new models reach showrooms, and on whether the new models are sold through dealers with the after-sales reputation that Chinese brands are still building. Specification alone will not decide the contest, because the Spanish survey suggests buyers already find Chinese specification sheets persuasive.

Electric motorcycles remain a small part of the story

The Chinese advance in Europe has so far been a combustion-engine phenomenon. In Spain, ANESDOR’s figures for the first nine months of 2026 show 1,131 electric motorcycles registered, up 38.3 per cent, against 95,968 petrol motorcycles, and 4,288 electric scooters, up 8.9 per cent, against 118,207 petrol ones. Across all Spanish light vehicles, electric registrations rose 14.3 per cent to 8,991 units out of 241,361, less than 4 per cent of the total. Italy registered 8,524 zero-emission two-wheelers between January and September, up 24.7 per cent, according to ANCMA’s figures, and the French observatory counted 7,344 new electric motorcycles, up 35 per cent, from a small base in both cases.

The Spanish survey explains why the numbers stay small. Interest among respondents was concentrated on combustion engines, at 97 per cent; 78 per cent said they did not know about purchase incentives for electric motorcycles, and 82 per cent said they had no interest in buying one even when aware of the incentives. EICMA is offering free test rides on more than 40 vehicles in its urban mobility area, and the China Electric Two-Wheelers Association is exhibiting in the halls. The scale of China’s electric two-wheeler industry, visible in the halls, has not yet translated into European motorcycle registrations. Its European growth rests on petrol engines and attractive prices, so incumbents face the pressure before any shift in technology arrives to help them.

Who speaks for the industry in Brussels

The institutional map has not caught up with the market. The European association that published the nine-month figures lists sixteen manufacturer members, including Japanese, German, Italian, Austrian, British, American, Canadian, Indian and Taiwanese companies; none of them is a mainland Chinese manufacturer. It also represents seventeen national industry associations in fifteen countries, and it estimates that about 481,600 jobs depend on the L-category vehicle industry in Europe and that more than 42 million motorcycles and scooters were on Europe’s roads in 2024. The brands that now lead Spain’s motorcycle table and rank among the leading brands in Germany are therefore absent from the body that speaks for the sector at European level.

The association’s message on 28 October was nonetheless one that Chinese entrants could endorse. Antonio Perlot, its secretary general, said European consumers increasingly see motorcycles and mopeds “as an answer to growing economic pressures and congestion in our cities, for daily mobility as much as for leisure,” and called for policies that recognise the role of L-category vehicles in Europe’s mobility. Economic pressure is the argument on which price-led brands are built. National associations are adapting faster than the European body: the survey ANESDOR co-sponsored asked riders directly about Chinese brands, and its brand tables are public. As Chinese market share grows, the question of who represents those manufacturers in negotiations over emissions, noise and safety rules will become harder to defer.

How a competitive analyst should read the show floor

For an analyst walking the halls between 3 and 8 November, the most informative evidence will be less the motorcycles on the turntables than the prices announced for A2 versions and mid-capacity adventure models, the warranties on offer, the European importers and dealer groups meeting on Chinese stands, and the gap between the specification a Chinese maker shows and the price at which its European rivals answer. This is the work of competitive research, and the motorcycle research practice at CSM International would pair it with content analysis of how each brand frames its European launch, separating the claims made for Milan from the commitments that will actually reach showrooms in the spring.

The data that will test those impressions arrive in the weeks around the show. ANESDOR published its August and September figures on 1 September and 1 October, which puts its October numbers at the start of November, and the European association’s full-year release for 2025 appeared on 27 January 2026, which suggests a similar date for 2026. Those figures will show whether the Spanish pattern is spreading north or remains a feature of a sunny, price-sensitive, scooter-heavy market. They will not settle the definitional question of what counts as Chinese. That question is already visible in the exhibitor catalogue, where some of the strongest Chinese-owned brands in Europe appear under the Italian flag.