Honda continues betting heavily on its scooters, more so on the Activa which has now managed to outsell the Hero Splendor yet again. The Splendor has long been India’s best selling motorcycle but the soaring popularity of the Japanese scooter has helped it surpass the “Fill It, Shut It” bike yet again, this time in July 2014. This isn’t the first time Honda has beaten Hero in monthly two-wheeler sales for a single model, the Activa outsold the Splendor two more times in the past 12 months. The Activa is also Honda’s top selling model.
Honda launched the Activa in 2001 and the scooter is now in its 14th year in the country. Honda has updated the Activa time and again with the latest version being the new segment benchmark, the Activa 125. Honda sold 1,91,883 units of the Activa last month while Hero sold 1,65,779 units of the Splendor in the same time frame. Meanwhile, Honda’s motorcycle sales were 1,48,012 units, yes that’s right, Honda sells more Activas than Dream Yuga, Dream Neo, Twister, Shine, Unicorn and Trigger combined.
Honda also overtook Bajaj Auto in monthly motorcycle sales (domestic market) last month with the Pulsar maker only selling 1,25,053 units. Bajaj Auto is performing poorly in the local market but is the strongest 2-wheeler manufacturer when it comes to exports. The Discover’s poor show at the box office has resulted in Hero selling more Splendors in a month than all motorcycles of Bajaj together. Meanwhile, the Activa continues to have a solid waiting period and the high demand has prompted Honda to set the world’s largest scooter plant in the country.
Update – The above sales don’t include the Super Splendor, adding the same has resulted in the Activa being number two and not number one. A fresh article on the same can be read HERE.
