Ducati is part of parent company Audi Group, which means it includes all its financial reporting in the larger organization's report. That means we not only get a look at how Ducati sales are going, but also how it's faring against its fellow automotive brethren in the Audi Group.
How did Ducati's Q3 2024 sales go? Overall, it's down by a couple thousand units delivered, as compared to Q3 in 2023. To be very specific, so far it's delivered 43,773 motorcycles to customers over the first nine months of 2024, as compared to 47,856 for the first nine months of 2023.
Percentage-wise, that's a drop of 8.5 percent year on year. And yet, because we can also see what Audi, Bentley, and Lamborghini did over the same time periods, we can tell you that both Audi and Bentley had double-digit delivery drops (say that five times fast) from Q3 of 2023 to Q3 of 2024.
Lamborghini, on the other hand, actually saw its deliveries rise 8.6 percent in Q3 of 2024 vs Q3 of 2023, but the Italian hypercar specialist still only delivered 8,411 units in the first nine months of 2024. That's an 8.6 percent rise on the 7,774 units it delivered over the same period in 2023, if you wondered.
As always, though, looking at a single quarter's results doesn't tell you much about how things are going for a company. Instead, it's helpful to look at a longer time period to get a feel for trends. With that in mind, I've pulled quarterly sales figures going back to Q1 of 2022 so we can see how things have changed over time.
In 2022, Ducati saw its single best yearly motorcycle deliveries ever, which you'll see represented in another chart. However, it's worth noting that both 2021 and 2023, on either side of 2022, aren't that far off from the dizzying heights of 2022 in terms of units delivered.
But let's look at the quarterly motorcycle delivery trends first, shall we?
In most cases, you'll see the difference in quarterly deliveries differ slightly (but not wildly) from year to year. The biggest differences that stand out are Q2 2022, Q4 2022, Q4 2023, and Q1 2024. Even then, the difference is under 2,500 units.
If we look at yearly deliveries, you'll get a different view of the relative stability of motorcycle deliveries to customers. Since FY 2024 is not yet over, I've included deliveries for the first nine months of 2024, and I've also included annual delivery figures going back to 2021.
What about annual motorcycle production, you might wonder? Unsurprisingly, on the back of strong motorcycle demand during the global pandemic, production ramped up in 2021 and especially in 2022. However, it fell off a bit in 2023 (as compared to 2022).
As noted above, FY 2024 isn't over yet, so we don't have full production numbers for this year. However, judging by production numbers for the first nine months of 2024 as compared to the first nine months of 2023, total motorcycle unit production looks to be in line with 2023, give or take.
Another interesting thing to note about how Ducati reports its sales is that while it doesn't break numbers down by individual models, it does do something else interesting: It breaks down its motorcycle deliveries by segment.
Because of this, we can see far and away that its dual sport and adventure bikes are consistently the favorites, above all others, in terms of motorcycle deliveries. Or, if you want a TL;DR summary, Multistradas = money.
Hit the Play button on the chart below to see the segment figures shift over time.
As with other 2024 figures, we'll have to wait until all the numbers are tallied in the beginning of 2025 to see how the final quarter of the year shakes out. While it's not looking like Ducati's going to set new overall sales records this year, it seems likely to stay pretty steady and on course. And compared to challenges some of Audi Group's automotive divisions are facing, that's certainly not bad news.
