The Hero Splendor has remained the undisputed champion in terms of sales. Rapidly increasing demand of automatic scooters because of the convenience factor has narrowed the gap between scooters and motorcycles. As a result, the segment leading Honda Activa scooter has defeated the market-leader Hero Splendor from the top spot in September sales. Scooters are the fastest growing segment in the Indian market, giving motorcycles a run for their money. Scooters outsell motorcycles in markets like Chandigarh, Imphal, Goa and Kerala.
In the past four years, scooter sales have seen a growth rate of 26 percent compared to that of the motorcycles that stood at 15 percent. With increasing urbanisation and increase in women buyers, scooters are being preferred over motorcycles because of their practicality and gearless mechanism in congested city traffic. Nowadays scooters also have decent amount of grunt for swift mobility. Honda has been credited over a decade ago for reviving India’s scooter market. Honda believes that the sales are correlated to development and education.
Motorcycle sales have stagnated over the past few years at 10 million units per annum. Scooters have registered significant growth with each passing day. In the first half of this fiscal year, motorcycle sales grew by 1 percent to 50.1 lakhs units, while scooters sales grew by 17 percent to 16.6 lakhs units in the same period. However, the original pioneer of scooters in India, Bajaj Auto dropped the segment of scooters a few years ago, keeping the motorcycle segment intact and growing. They believe in concentrating only on motorcycles and have no regrets.
Source – The Economic Times
