Bajaj Auto is losing market share quickly. From being en route to challenge Hero for the top spot in sales around 7-8 years back, to now falling fourth in domestic sales, Bajaj is facing a lot of competition from rivals. Last year, Honda displaced Bajaj from the number two spot in sales while last month TVS overtook Bajaj in domestic sales, thanks to the rising scooter sales of the Hosur based company. Many said that Honda was able to overtake Bajaj because of the Activa, which accounts for close to 1.5 lakh unit sales every month. That was true but now Honda has overtaken Bajaj in domestic motorcycle sales.
Honda has been inching closer to Bajaj Auto in terms of domestic motorcycle sales since a few months now. In June, Honda was trailing Bajaj by just 4897 units but has now surpassed the Pulsar maker to become the second highest selling motorcycle brand in India. Bajaj sold 2,67,841 motorcycles (a 9% increase MoM) last month, while Honda sold 1,57,746 motorcycles in the same time period. However, Bajaj Auto is high on exports, which although not disclosed yet but are close to 1.1 lakh units easily.
In the month of June, Bajaj exported 1,14,512 units while Honda only exported 13,765 units. While Bajaj Auto’s exports mentioned here comprise completely of motorcycles, Honda’s number is a mix of scooters and motorcycles, the break-up being 5440 scooters and 8325 motorcycles. Bajaj Auto’s total sales last month was 3,19,292 units, which includes exports (1,69,755 units) and commercial vehicles (51,451 units). With commercial vehicle exports being 20,562 units in June, even if we assume around 25,000 units of the same being exported last month, Honda is way ahead of Bajaj now in domestic motorcycle sales. We also assume Honda exported 10,000 motorcycles.
This gives us a rough estimation of domestic motorcycle sales in July 2014 as follows –
Bajaj Auto – 1,23,086 (2,67,841 motorcycles sold – 1,69,755 total exports + 25,000 commercial vehicle exports)
Honda – 1,47,746 (1,57,746 motorcycles sold – 10,000 motorcycle exports).
Thus, Honda has overtaken Bajaj Auto in domestic motorcycle sales in the month of July 2014. The sales increase can be credited to the Dream series and Shine 125cc motorcycles which are doing good numbers for the Japanese automaker. Meanwhile, Honda sold 2,23,665 scooters last month, with less than 10,000 of those being exported, making Honda by far the leader in the scooter segment.
Update – Here are the exact domestic motorcycle sales figures of the top 3 manufacturers in July 2014 –
Hero MotoCorp – 4,63,869 units
Honda – 1,48,012 units
Bajaj – 1,25,053 units
