A mixed bag for two wheeler sales was witnessed for the month of April, where bike sales for Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India went up and those of Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto Limited fell. In terms of numbers, Hero's domestic motorcycle sales fell by 12.5 per cent to 4,32,657 units, compared to a higher 4,94,473 units during April last year.
Japanese manufacturer Honda is striving hard for the number one position in the Indian two wheeler segment and this can be seen from the way its sales are rising. The company was the only one to post a substantial sales rise of 48.76 per cent, selling 1,15,536 units during April as against 77,665 in the previous year. On the other hand, Bajaj sold at 1,99,838 units this year instead of 2,00,228 units sold during April 2012 which implies a 0.19 per cent dip. Though Bajaj's fall is not substantial, it allows Honda to come that much closer to becoming the number two wheeler manufacturer in the country.
After dissociating from the Hero group three years back in 2010, Honda stated that it was aiming to become the top two-wheeler manufacturer in the country within a decade of independent operations. The company revealed plans of producing ten million units by 2019-20, for which it may need to start eight new plants. This is evident from the fact that Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India has gained in segments previously led by Hero or Bajaj such as the 75 cc to 110 cc. In this segment, sales for Honda went up four-fold in April. 32,982 units were sold in the current April, in comparison to only 7,290 units in the same month during 2012. Sales for Hero in the 75-100 cc segment went down by 15.2 per cent, with 3,55,460 units sold in comparison to 4,19,199 units in 2012.
Interestingly, the same trend was also observed during FY 2012-13. Motorcycle sales for Honda grew by 53.77 per cent in the above mentioned period, selling 11,86,726 units as against 7,71,715 units in the last fiscal. Market leader Hero saw its bike sales going down by 4.72 per cent from FY 2012-13 (53,62,730 units) to FY 2011-12 (56,28,513 units). However, Bajaj displayed some positive numbers, selling 11,28,410 units in FY 2012-13, in comparison to 12,44,938 units during the previous fiscal (an increase of 10.33 per cent). The above mentioned data, as provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) appears to be quite variable for the different companies. Industry experts are not completely sure how the current fiscal will pan out, at present.
