2012-2013 New Snowmobile Sales Led By Europe

A late but long-lasting winter in much of the country salvaged U.S. snowmobile sales in the winter of 2012-13, and favorable economic and weather conditions elsewhere drove the snowmobile market forward by more than 15,000 units worldwide.
Those statistics were unveiled by Ed Klim, president of the International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association. Klim portrayed the numbers as a sign of strength for the snowmobile market, and he predicted a strong future.
“We had really, really good spring shows,” Klim said of the traveling displays featuring the 2014 snowmobiles from all four major snowmobile manufacturers. “We’re very optimistic. Spring orders were up and that usually bodes pretty well for the upcoming season.”
In the 2012-13 season, sales of new snowmobiles were 48,536 in the U.S. compared to 48,689 in the winter of 2011-12. Klim described new snowmobile sales as flat in the Upper Midwest, down slightly in the Northeast and “up a little” in the West.
In Canada, new snowmobile sales were up 10 percent, jumping from 40,165 units in 2011-12 to 44,022 in 2012-13. The provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were each up by more than 25 percent, Klim said, thanks in part to a strong economy driven by oil, natural gas and farm incomes.
Sales were even stronger in Europe and Russia, jumping from 40,233 in the 2011-12 sales season to 52,043 in the 2012-13 season. It marks the first time in the history of snowmobiling that worldwide snowmobile sales were led by overseas sales. Klim said Russia in particular continues to grow by incredible margins, topping 31,000 units this past year.
This means worldwide snowmobile sales jumped 12 percent to 144,601 units, compared to 129,087 units in the previous season, with 123,063 units sold in 2010-11 and 111,492 sold in 2009-10.
Snowmobile registrations in the U.S. jumped to 1,392,000 units in 2012-13 from 1,366,630 in 2011-12. Canadian snowmobile registrations were 590,677, versus 593,248 the previous year.

From the September 2013 issue of SnowTech released on August 15th, 2013