The Big Picture: The two-wheeler industry of India was flourishing since a long time by recording growth every month. But July and August brought the nightmare for all two wheeler manufacturers as none of them have recorded positive growth. That is what is reflecting from the table below with almost all arrows pointing downwards and only two showing negligible change. Actually this trend started from July itself and unfortunately we were not able to cover it as many manufacturers did not reveal their July figures until very late and Yamaha did not reveal it at all. This declining outcome is quite anticipated by everyone and hence this span of time has not witnessed any single launch of a new bike or scooter. The reason is clear that this time of the year is usually a slow mover because of moody monsoon as well as upcoming festive season and hence it makes no sense to launch new products. The current month of September will hopefully see an upward trend. In totality, market rolled down by almost 8.27% in the month of August.
If we see Bajaj Auto, the Pulsar 200 NS and Discover 125 ST received a quick positive response and July sales climbed by a good margin. But Bajaj sadly failed to carry forward the pace in August, making it an 11.56% decline in sales. Hero MotoCorp is on continuous decline for the last two months. The sales for them in August stood almost 1 lakh units less than that of June. This is surprising considering that they have launched many new vehicles recently and started exports as well. Hero can’t ignore this decline even if they are restructuring themselves and focusing on new facility, development and business expansions.
Then there is Honda Motorcycles which showed an average performance as their sales rose in July but in August slowing market put brakes on their sales too. Thus they also recorded a loss of 6.83%. Mahindra 2-Wheelers looks well isolated from falling market conditions and hence is on a steady track and selling 10k scooters constantly. Duro DZ being the hot seller amongst them. For Suzuki, their entry level offering Hayate is being accepted very well and giving them a reason of joy. July was amongst one of highest selling months for Suzuki in India. Though in August, it gave them a blow and hence sales went down by almost 10%.
The time of TVS is not at all going well in the year 2012. Downward trend of sales is looking like having no end. TVS is being confronted at bike end by Hero and Bajaj and at scooter end by Honda, so leaving them no space to breath. They too lost their market share in August by almost 5%. Total strategy revamp is the need of the hour for them now. Unfortunately Yamaha did not reveal their figures for July and August and hence we can’t comment on it.
Rankings for the Month of August: The standings for the month of August are shown in the table below. There is usually no change in the ranking of two-wheeler manufacturers in India as every company is separated by huge margins. The actual hustle is happening between Yamaha and Suzuki, as both companies usually have figures falling very close to each other.
Market Share for the Month of August:
