The Big Picture – The two-wheeler market in India is quite big in terms of volumes as it crosses the million vehicles sales mark easily every month by margin. But this time, market has seen a downturn by 6.40% compared to last month. We will see how every manufacturer has contributed this month.
Hero MotoCorp – The numero uno of long run in the Indian two-wheeler industry, Hero Motocorp, has witnessed considerable fall in sales numbers in June. This downfall is in line with the market sentiment though. There might be several reasons behind the falling sales of company, but we can also approximate that Honda’s rise in bike sales might have dented the sales figures of this camp. This might have triggered the alarm and thus we recently heard news about Hero Motocorp developing ultra-low cost bike. After all it takes lot more efforts to maintain the number one territory, than to gain it. Let us see who evolves better and manages to stay at top. But on the positive note, in this calendar year, the company has managed to sell more than 5 lakh units in single month for the fourth time. Overall, the company witnessed drop in sales of 9.97% and 5.96% on MoM and YoY basis respectively.
Bajaj Auto – Bajaj has recently created a shockwave in the premium two-wheeler market with its partner KTM, by launching pocket rocket KTM Duke 390 with highest PS/Rs. proposition. But their solo handed business was experiencing a different story as workers of their Pune plant went on strike. This has halted the production of its one of the key selling model, Pulsar. Sales report of June reflects the same as company closed the month with fall in sales of 16.48% on MoM basis and that of 20.05% on YoY basis.
Honda Motorcycles and Scooters – Going against the current market trend, Honda gained the momentum strongly in June. Their strong gain in bike sales might have spoiled the party of the others, but is proving the company’s decisions of addressing the entry level market to be just right. Dream series of bikes are helping the company, in fulfilling their dream of being on top of the charts. Currently Honda is ahead of Bajaj in domestic sales and not far behind in overall sales. This situation is going to further flourish once the Activa i becomes available in the market. In June, company’s sales increased by 10.09% compared to that of previous month and similarly that has increased by 11.10% compared to June 2012.
TVS Motors – TVS is struggling hard to sustain its market share while it is being attacked by others. Hence it is now working on new scooter which is likely to challenge Activa head on. TVS has lost its ground badly in scooter segments over the past few years. Now the company has realized the situation very well and looking for damage control act. We speculate that TVS’s new scooter may hit the showrooms in July itself, as we can see a sharp rise in scooter numbers. TVS has to put some efforts in the bike segment too as their current portfolio is quite outgunned in front of the competition. Overall, TVS managed to sell 1.25% & 4.89% less two-wheelers on MoM & YoY basis respectively.
Yamaha Motorcycles – Yamaha with its distinct customer base is looking strong over the past few months. Company has always been upgrading their two-wheelers in order to make them appealing and up to date. Hence, overall company’s sales volume has increased by strong 51.95% (YoY) with almost no change in sales compared to May 2013.
Suzuki Motorcycles & Mahindra 2 Wheelers – This time too we don’t have official sales figures from both the companies.
Things To Look Out For In July 2013 –
– How Bajaj settles the strike at its plan and how badly it will affect the performance of company?
– Does the strike at Bajaj auto delay the launch of new Discovers?
– Can Honda further dent the Hero Motocorp’s bread and butter segment?
– Will TVS launch it’s new scooter this month?