Seven common mistakes when reading vehicle registration data
Most wrong conclusions come from comparing numbers that measure different things. Here are seven traps, with real examples.
1. Mixing registrations, sales and dispatches
India’s FADA reports retail registrations and SIAM reports factory dispatches. For three-wheelers in FY2025-26 they were 1,363,412 and 836,231. Neither is wrong; they measure different things. See FADA, SIAM and VAHAN.
2. Comparing a stock with a flow
The USA reported 9,261,249 registered motorcycles for 2024. That is vehicles on the register, not motorcycles sold in the year. Putting it next to Indonesia’s 6,412,769 motorcycle sales would mislead.
3. Ignoring the fiscal year
India reports April to March, Uganda July to June, and most others the calendar year. A “2023” figure may cover different months in different countries.
4. Treating member sales as the whole market
In Vietnam, the five VAMM member companies sold 2,615,057 motorcycles in 2025, while the total market passed 3.4 million. Quoting the first as the market understates it by about a quarter.
5. Missing combined categories
Kenya’s headline figure combines motorcycles, autocycles and three-wheelers (72,868 in 2024). It cannot be used as a motorcycle count on its own.
6. Counting one model under several names
Sources spell makes, models and variants differently. Without a single naming list, the same model appears as several and shares are split. This is why we map every record to one naming list.
7. Trusting blank or inconsistent fields
Registration records can have missing fuel types, colours or locations. A clean data set flags these instead of dropping or guessing them, and states how many records were affected.
A checklist before you use any number
- Does it count registrations, sales, dispatches or stock?
- Which months does the period cover?
- Is it the whole market or members only?
- Are any categories combined?
- Who published it, and where can you check it?
Our methodology explains how we handle each of these.
Sources
- FADA, FY2025-26 vehicle retail data
- SIAM FY2025-26 results, as reported by AutoGuide India
- FHWA Highway Statistics 2024, Table MV-1
- AISI 2025 sales, as reported by Jawapos
- VAMM 2025 sales, as reported by Dien dan Doanh nghiep
- Saigon Times on the 2025 total motorcycle market
- KNBS Economic Survey 2025, as reported by People Daily
Change log
- 6 October 2026: First published.
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