While the Bajaj Pulsar is regenerating sales after a marginal drop last month, the Honda CB Unicorn 160 has seen a sharp decline in volumes, compromising its position on the list.
The most celebrated two-wheeler segment in India, the 150cc motorcycle lineup comprises of commuters, street-fighters, super sports and now adventure tourers as well. For August 2015, the 150cc segment continued to perform well doing a cumulative business of 1,11,979 units with the Bajaj Pulsar 150 (and 135 LS) contributing majority of sales. The Pune based manufacturer sold 35,001 units of its sports brand last month also hinting towards the growing popularity of the AS 150 in the market. The volumes have regenerated after taking a marginal dip in July this year.
Apart from Bajaj, TVS too bounced back in the segment recapturing the second spot with 23,899 units of the Apache 160 and 180 models sold last month. Sales saw an increment of 27 percent compared to July while year-on-year growth stood at a healthy 67 percent. The fight for the third and fourth spot was a tough one as both the Yamaha FZ and Honda CB Unicorn 160 clocked negative sales this August. The FZ saw a dip of 8 percent with 17,254 units sold compared to July 2015; whereas the CB Unicorn saw volumes plummet by 14 percent with 13,879 units moving out of showrooms.
That said, Honda is gearing up to launch the new CB Hornet 160R later this year which along with the Unicorn will strengthen its position in the 150cc category (the Trigger has been discontinued). Moving to Suzuki, the Gixxer is a consistent seller with 8229 shipped out in August 2015 and has been constantly maintaining the growth momentum with the full faired SF also doing well. Suzuki really needs to improve its sales network that will further help sales to grow.
Dominant in the commuter space, Hero MotoCorp continues to struggle in the 150cc segment as its three offerings cumulatively do not match the Pulsar’s volumes. For August 2015, Hero sold 4341 units of the Xtreme, 1829 units of the Achiever and 1756 units of the Hunk. The Achiever though was the only model see a dip in sales as volumes for the Xtreme and Hunk saw a rise of around 1000 units respectively over July 2015. Other niche sellers in the segment come from Yamaha as the R15 retailed 2188 units whereas the SZ-R (only available now as V2.0) clocked 1653 units.
Moving to the bottom, Bajaj Auto’s Discover brand just doesn’t seem to get it going as the model that received a major upgrade last year is struggling with just 1084 units sold last month. In comparison, Bajaj sold 17,483 units of the Discover in August last year. The Honda CB150R is another capable but dull selling product with only 809 units sold last month. The long forgotten Suzuki GS150R managed to get 57 new buyers but was the last 150cc motorcycle on the list.
