Sales numbers speak a lot and that’s why it’s important to know how good a bike is doing by glancing at how many units were sold every month. Right from the manufacturer to buyers and analysts, everybody wants to know the performance of a company by looking at how many units were sold. After bringing you all the dope on brand-wise sales of 2-wheelers in June, we now have a look at the sales figures of premium motorcycles in India. The table below shows the sales of premium bikes in the country and they are the numbers sold, not the numbers produced (no export figures in the table).
A few things you need to know about the above table. Some models are clustered together as per engine capacity so we don’t have their individual numbers. Thus when we say Royal Enfield 350cc, it means the Bullet 350, Bullet Electra 350, Classic 350 and Thunderbird 350. Royal Enfield 500cc consists of Classic 500, Bullet 500 (carb and FI), Bullet Electra 500 and Thunderbird 500. KTM comes under Bajaj Auto so the Duke 200 gets classified in the 150-200cc category which also consists of Pulsars, thus we have estimated the figures of the Duke 200.
Harley-Davidson’s 883cc bikes include the SuperLow and Iron while all other bikes except these two and the Street come in Others. Others in Yamaha include the FZ1 and MT-01 while others in Honda include the VT1300 and VFR1200. Indian Motorcycles hasn’t reported any sales primarily because they sold no units. This could be due to three reasons – the lack of dealerships (they have just one), the high pricing causing no demand and the third reason being RTO not having cleared the bike for registration yet. Ducati, BMW Motorrad and Aprilia are not officially present in India and sell bikes through private dealers who import them, they don’t reveal any sales figures.
Now for some analysis. Royal Enfield is the leader in the premium motorcycle space and majority of their sales are coming from their 350cc models. The 500cc bikes are also doing decently as they sell more than all other players combined. The Continental GT doesn’t sell as much as expected and Royal Enfield aside, the KTM Duke 390 is the highest selling bike in the premium space (KTM produced 1258 units of the 390 in June, majority of them being exported), followed by the Harley-Davidson Street 750 but since it’s early days for the American cruiser, it will be interesting to see how the numbers last once the initial hoopla dies down.
Although Royal Enfield has been put in the premium motorcycle segment, KTM doesn’t consider it and proudly claimed last year to be the leader in the premium motorcycle space by selling more than 8000 units. Harley-Davidson is doing very good numbers in the above 1000cc segment (it’s the leader there) but their 883cc bikes have been affected with the arrival of their own Street 750 and Triumph which is doing good numbers with the Bonneville and Thruxton. Kawasaki is doing good in all segments and sales of the Ninja 300 are decent considering the price and the fact that a more powerful motorcycle (at almost half the price) shares showroom space with it. With ABS and downward revision of pricing, the Ninja 300 has the capability to make Kawasaki shine greener.
The traditional Japanese bike makers (Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki) are lagging behind big time although they were the first to enter and also have a vast dealership network. Among all the companies present in the above 1000cc segment, Honda and Yamaha are the only ones who haven’t managed to sell a single unit in June 2014. Yamaha isn’t selling a single unit of its premium bikes in India while Honda just manages to sell in single digits. Among these three Japanese companies, Suzuki is doing decent numbers as the Hayabusa manages to sell owing to its massive brand image.
Future Outlook – While Royal Enfield doesn’t have any new products planned in the near future, their lead is significant so no one will catch up with them anytime soon. KTM is bound to see a massive increase in sales once the RC 200 and RC 390 hit the market, the former doing higher volumes. Harley-Davidson’s Street 500 is going to make things brighter for them while Honda and Yamaha are expected to bring in their CBR300R and R25 respectively, both bikes have huge scope in our market. Kawasaki’s Z250 is unlikely to do much considering the premium pricing philosophy of the company while Triumph’s upcoming 250cc bikes (Daytona 250 and Street Single) are bound to create a lot of buzz. Among all this, Suzuki seems to be the laggard, they have no product to support them in the premium space and the Inazuma has failed to get going even after a price drop.
Misc – Suzuki Inazuma (18 units) and Honda CBR250R (221 units) have not been taken into the premium segment as their sales are reported in our regular 2-wheeler sales report. We did not report numbers of the TVS Apache in our previous report, it sold 14,742 units in June. Pulsar 220 and Avenger 220 sold a combined 9121 units. Suzuki sold 150 units of the GS150R in June 2014. Expect more detailed numbers from us in future reports.
