What is the actual condition of the RV industry?

The unprecedented boost in sales and rising demand we all have experienced over the last couple of years have lulled many of us into a false sense of security. Fabulous revenues have been a driving factor and resulted in investments and optimism throughout the industry. Now rumour has it that the boom is over...

Statistics do not lie. Numbers do not lie. As straightforward as it sounds, it is about time we made our homework and adapted our strategies to the evolving reality. What can we learn from the latest data for Q1&2? One might think that given the challenges our industry has had to face over the last 3 years the overall condition is not as bad as many of us have believed it would be. The key European markets (such as Germany, France, UK) have suffered a rather moderate drop in sales of new caravans (the average being approx. 10% among the top three markets and 15% in general). The decrease in sales of new motorhomes (5%) is far from being dramatic, but there are several factors one needs to take into consideration. The shortages in chassis deliveries have been a major challenge for many manufacturers lately. With the supplies slowly turning "back to normal" we have recently seen a lot of backorders being released. This means a lot of the "new" vehicle registrations are motorhomes ordered several months or (in some cases) even 1-2 years earlier. This might distort the picture to some extent. On top of this many dealers have stocked up and struggle to sell their vehicles due to the fear of recession/inflation/uncertainty. Even leading players are forced to redefine their strategies - a look at the discounts VW offers on their California and Grand California model ranges should be enough to understand the magnitude of this problem. It is not hard to imagine the challenges faced by manufacturers who got "carried away" and invested in the expansion of their production plants, apparently convinced that the boom would last for a decade.

An industry facing supply issues and a high (at times even insatiable) demand in spite of major price increases is now about to experience a period of turbulences. Let us all buckle up.

Below is also a summary presenting the registration numbers in Poland.