We came across what we thought was an interesting statistic for the Italian motorcycle market from our guys at Motoblog.it. Take a wild guess at who the market leader for motorcycles in Italy might be…. Yes, that’s right, Honda. In a market in crisis here, down 12 and 21.4 percent, some eco-incentives in November just managed to save the day but Honda doesn’t seem too concerned. So what’s the secret to their success?

Despite skipping last year’s EICMA, Honda’s presence at the 2010 EICMA show proved what kind of a market leader it is. It was back in force after a successful 2010 MotoGP season, presenting eight new bikes and two concept bikes. While this won’t have affected November sales necessarily as we’re not all rushing out to buy Hondas after EICMA, it shows an attention to the European market that Yamaha, despite its star riders, doesn’t seem to be able to give off.

Honda has also continued promotional runs with discounts on final pricing on some of its more popular models and it seems the strategy is paying off. Lose a few euros on each bike but sell a whole lot of them makes a lot of sense in what is a difficult market. It seems also that Honda’s scooter range is incredibly popular in a market saturated with scooters and that is also spoiled for choice. Leaving Piaggio, Vespa and other brands in its wake, of 53,000 Honda sales in Italy since January, 34,000 were scooter models with the SH300i leading the pack, followed by the 125 and 150 models.

Continue reading: Honda biggest market share in Italy

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