November was a disappointing month for all manufacturers as sales dropped by a hefty margin. Nevertheless, the new Avenger kept the spirit alive with a healthy improvement in sales.
November 2015 was an extremely disappointing month for all manufacturers as volumes witnessed a massive slump across all segments. In the performance bike space too, things seemed pretty disappointing, except the Avengers were here to save the day, as the only offering to garner positive sales. It seems the Avenger is finally getting its due as Bajaj Auto infused some new life into the popular cruiser earlier this year. The Cruise and Street 220 options managed to cumulatively sell a whopping 9444 units last month, witnessing a hike of 52 percent in sales.
Clearly, the updated cruiser has set the cash registers ringing for the automaker, but the same can’t be said about the Pulsar range. The Pulsar 180-200 models cumulatively clocked 6302 units in November 2015, a month-on-month drop of 44 percent. The reliable old Pulsar 220 also saw volumes drop by a hefty 33 percent last month with 6310 units sold. It was a dull month for other manufacturers as well as the segment best selling TVS Apache was down on volumes by 19 percent. With only 20,577 units moved out, the drop was rather steep and can be expected to go down further in December.
Yamaha’s YZF-R15 couldn’t charm the masses either as sales were down by 51 percent with only 1827 units shipped out in November. The R15 S which managed to escalate sales during the previous month, could not manage the same effect to help push out a few more units. Sales were similar with other performance products as the overall two-wheeler market witnessed a drop in volumes. Despite Honda introducing new colour options for the CBR150R and CBR250R, the numbers went down even further for both models with the blink of an eye.
The Honda CBR150R clocked a maximum of 689 units, witnessing a decline of 17 percent in sales; whereas the quarter-litre CBR250R was down to 328 units from 403 units sold in October 2015. Honda has already been struggling in the segment and the numbers only go on to show how urgently the company needs to introduce the updated CBR twins in India. Hero dealers moved out 274 units of the Karizma R and ZMR in November, which could be the last units of the outgoing model. Reports have suggested of the company having stopped production of its flagship bike and they might introduce an all-new Karizma at the Auto Expo next year with less awkward styling.
