Malaysia is a motorcycle country. In the first eight months of 2026, 534,866 new motorcycles were registered here, up 43.5 per cent from 372,759 in the same eight months of 2018. The total grew, but the colours changed more than the total did, and one colour changed more than any other.
We counted the Road Transport Department (JPJ) motorcycle registration file published on data.gov.my, for January to August of 2018 and of 2026, by the colour field recorded against each registration. In 2018, 2,350 of the new motorcycles registered were green: 0.6 per cent of the total, about 1 in 159, the twelfth most common colour. In 2026, 98,802 were green: 18.5 per cent, about 1 in 5.4, the second most common colour after blue. That is a 42-fold rise in number and a near thirty-fold rise in share.
Contents
Green passed red, black and white on the way up, and the rise was spread across the years rather than a single jump. Here is green's share of new-motorcycle registrations, January to August of every year:
| Year (Jan-Aug) | Green registered | All new motorcycles | Green share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2,350 | 372,759 | 0.6% |
| 2019 | 14,707 | 401,475 | 3.7% |
| 2020 | 31,601 | 345,038 | 9.2% |
| 2021 | 39,729 | 369,149 | 10.8% |
| 2022 | 53,678 | 485,948 | 11.0% |
| 2023 | 54,648 | 447,423 | 12.2% |
| 2024 | 56,570 | 438,168 | 12.9% |
| 2025 | 69,195 | 475,426 | 14.6% |
| 2026 | 98,802 | 534,866 | 18.5% |
The share rose in every one of those eight years without a single fall, which is unusual in this data: many of the other colours rise and fall from year to year rather than moving in one direction.
The rest of the colour order was rewritten too
Green's rise is the clearest change, but it is part of a wider reshuffle. This table shows every colour in the 2026 top ten, with its 2018 figure and its rank in each year, counted the same way over the same eight months.
| Colour | 2026 registered | 2026 share | 2026 rank | 2018 registered | 2018 share | 2018 rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 127,900 | 23.9% | 1 | 117,077 | 31.4% | 1 |
| Green | 98,802 | 18.5% | 2 | 2,350 | 0.6% | 12 |
| Red | 62,251 | 11.6% | 3 | 95,101 | 25.5% | 2 |
| Grey | 61,329 | 11.5% | 4 | 6,595 | 1.8% | 8 |
| Black | 55,888 | 10.4% | 5 | 63,960 | 17.2% | 3 |
| Purple | 32,978 | 6.2% | 6 | 4,040 | 1.1% | 9 |
| White | 31,702 | 5.9% | 7 | 28,324 | 7.6% | 4 |
| Silver | 23,423 | 4.4% | 8 | 13,730 | 3.7% | 6 |
| Brown | 21,370 | 4.0% | 9 | 943 | 0.3% | 13 |
| Yellow | 12,127 | 2.3% | 10 | 25,474 | 6.8% | 5 |
Blue is still the most-registered colour, but its grip loosened: it fell from 31.4 per cent to 23.9 per cent of the total, even though the number of blue motorcycles grew (117,077 to 127,900). Red dropped from second place to third, from 25.5 per cent to 11.6 per cent, and unusually it fell in absolute number too, from 95,101 to 62,251, a 35 per cent decline in a market that grew 43.5 per cent. Black slid from third to fifth (17.2 per cent to 10.4 per cent), also fewer bikes than in 2018. Grey went the other way, climbing from eighth to fourth (1.8 per cent to 11.5 per cent, 6,595 to 61,329). Yellow nearly left the top ten, from fifth to tenth (6.8 per cent to 2.3 per cent).
Most green motorcycles are Yamahas
The green is not spread evenly across every maker. Of the 98,802 green motorcycles registered in the first eight months of 2026, 69,223 were Yamahas, which is 70.1 per cent of all green registrations. Green is now Yamaha's second most-registered colour (27 per cent of its own registrations, after blue at 29 per cent); in 2018 green was not in Yamaha's top five colours at all. The other green registrations are spread across many makers, led by Honda (8,924), Aveta (6,254), Modenas (4,377) and QJMotor (3,255). So the market-wide green figure is real, but it is concentrated: most of it comes from registrations recorded under one maker, Yamaha. We are reporting what colour was recorded against each registration; we are not claiming why any maker or buyer chose it.
What this does and does not show
These are registration counts from JPJ, not sales. A registration can lag a purchase, so the figures describe what was registered for the road, not retail demand. We counted the colour field recorded against each registration directly. JPJ records colour as a broad category and does not distinguish shades, so this is the registered colour classification rather than an exact paint colour. The share figures are each colour's count divided by all new motorcycle registrations in the same eight months, so the two years are measured the same way.
We cannot produce a reliable national breakdown by state. In the 2026 motorcycle file, 84.6 per cent of registrations have "Rakan Niaga" in the state field, which denotes registration through an official JPJ partner portal rather than a named state, so any geographic split would not represent the country, and we have not attempted one.
This is a sister finding to the one we published on new cars (where grey has overtaken white), and to our count of how many new motorcycles are now electric. Anyone can reproduce this one: download the yearly motorcycle files from data.gov.my (motorcycles_2018.parquet and motorcycles_2026.parquet), keep the rows dated January to August, and count them by the colour field.
