Ducati Multistrada V4 leads company to record motorcycle sales in 2021

Ducati has revealed it sold more motorcycles in 2021 than in any other year during its entire history thanks to strong demand for its Ducati Multistrada V4 in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The Italian company was one of many motorcycle firms to have suffered a downturn in 2020 as the world adjusted to COVID-19 safeguarding measures and sporadic lockdown periods.

Nevertheless, while it forecast a healthy year-on-year growth in 2021 as a result, the final figures still exceeded expectations as Ducati shifted more motorcycles over the year than at any other stage in its 96-year history.

With sales down 10% in 2020 (48,042) compared with 2019 (53,183), Ducati recovered lost ground in 2021 with 59,447 motorcycles sold across the twelve month period, representing a 24% jump on 2020 and a 12% leap on 2019.

Ducati performed particularly well globally with double digit growth in all key motorcycle markets, with the United States becoming its largest market with 9,007 motorcycles sold, an increase of +32% year-on-year, followed by Italy and Germany.

Central to Ducati’s resounding bounce back in 2021 has been the successful introduction of the Ducati Multistrada V4. The award-winning adventure tourer ended the year as Ducati’s best-selling model with 9,957 units sold, pushing the Scrambler 800 down into second place, while the venerable Monster was third.

“2021 was a magical year for Ducati,” said CEO Claudio Domenicali. “We delivered over 59,000 motorcycles, a number never achieved before in 95 years of the company's history. We also won the title of MotoGP Constructors' World Champion for the second consecutive year, and we started the electric era of our company with the V21L prototype, which foresees the bike that will race in the MotoE championship from 2023.

“The pandemic, which is still underway, in addition to generating so much suffering, has also made activities more complex, forcing us to conduct a continuous internal reorganization. Supply chains created delivery delays for which I want to apologize to all Ducatisti, thanking them for their patience. 

“Despite all these difficulties, the desire to excel of our employees here in Borgo Panigale and in our subsidiaries around the world helped us to achieve these record results. We are investing in an extremely ambitious growth path that will lead the company to improve even further, by entering new market segments.

“With the DesertX we will have from this year on an extremely attractive proposal for adventure fans, and other ambitious projects are currently in development. The core values ​​of the brand – Style, Sophistication, Performance and Trust – are more current than ever. 

“Future growth will take place in compliance with these values, offering our enthusiastic customers products that are increasingly representative with a unique mix of beauty, technology and distinctiveness, such as the best of Made in Italy."

After the successes of 2021, Ducati has already begun 2022 with a bang following the unveiling of the new Ducati DesertX, which takes the firm into the competitive and lucrative off-roader market, while the new Streetfighter V2 will also hit the roads soon.