Despite being shopped by parent company Volkswagen, Ducati Motor Holding closed out 2018 sales in excess of 53,000 motorcycles delivered to customers worldwide. That means the Italian icon has sold more than 50,000 bikes every year since 2015. Sales haven’t been quite as strong here, though. According to Ducati, dealer deliveries in the U.S. — historically Ducati's #1 market — totaled 7,843 units. “The drop in sales reflects a 9% downturn across the US sector of motorcycles over 500cc.”
"While 2018 was challenging for the big motorcycles market, with slowdowns in important countries like the U.S., Ducati had, by the end of the year, delivered over 53,000 bikes to customers worldwide, consolidating the growth achieved in recent years,” stated CEO of Ducati Motor Holding CEO Claudio Domenicali. "In 2018 we achieved stability and the year was positive both in terms of business and racing. We won numerous MotoGP races and developed an exceptional bike.”
A significant contribution to this result came from the success of the Panigale family, which accounted for 9,700 bikes sold (70% increase over 2017). This makes Ducati the global sales leader in the superbike segment for the first time, with a market share of over 26%. In 2018 one superbike out of every four sold worldwide was a Ducati Panigale.
The V4 Panigale flagship sold more than 6,100 units in the 12 months since the first production 4 cylinder from Ducati was introduced. The Multistrada platform was equally successful with 11,829 motorcycles sold in 2018, led by the Multistrada 1260, which increased 25% compared to 2017, selling 6,569 bikes.
Compared to 2017 sales of 55,871 units, Ducati did dip 5% against the backdrop of an over 500cc motorcycle market that shrank by 3% globally. Domestic sales proved solid with a + 4.5% surge reaching 9,200 bikes and making Italy Ducati's largest market.
Spain also performed strongly with 2,444 motorcycles sold (+ 8%), with further growth observed in Japan with 1,941 bikes (+ 2%) and Switzerland with 1,276 bikes (+ 2.2%).
In the Asian markets, Ducati continues to ride the upward trend, especially in China (+29 %) where a new direct branch has been established and the sales network has expanded from 19 to 23 dealerships.