Hero has killed the Karizma by giving it a very unappealing design. Customers haven’t accepted the facelifted model in spite of the increase in power and sales have fallen drastically in the past few months.
You read it first on MotorBeam. Hero stopped production of the new Karizmas in November 2014, reason being lack of demand for the motorcycle. The company dispatched just 7 units of the motorcycle to dealers in December as dealerships are already sitting on a huge pile of Karizma inventory, not being able to sell them due to lack of demand. Thus the piling inventory made Hero stop production of its flagship motorcycle temporarily. Once dealers exhaust the current stock of the Karizma, production will commence.
While many might view it as a bad move to stop production, Hero has been smart because there is no point piling pressure on dealers as two scenarios would emerge. The first is, Hero would have produced bikes in December and dispatched them to dealers, thereby increasing their stock and reducing their capital but the advantage would be lower excise duty. The other would be to stock bikes in its own plants in which case the excise duty would be charged when the bike leaves the factory, a 2014 manufactured bike leaving the plant in 2015 will result in the higher duty.
That said, we spoke to multiple dealers and they confirmed that the Karizma isn’t selling well and the new model hasn’t been well received. It’s common sense after all, why was the old Karizma R selling, in spite of it not having any mechanical update since its launch in 2003. Simply because of its aesthetics. Hero ruined the design of the bike with the 2014 update and the Karizma no longer has the USP of turning heads, something which a 10-year old bike still managed. The company should go back to the drawing board and not let brand Karizma die a slow death.
