Superbikes make inroads into rugged Indian terrain

Superbikes are riding high — high up in the mountains. One in every ten super-premium bikes that cost anywhere between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 60 lakh is sold to the highlanders in the north and north-eastern parts of the country, surprising the bikemakers themselves.

“Much to our astonishment, 10% of superbikes have been bought by highlanders in Dehradun and Guwahati,” says Atul Gupta, vice-president (marketing & sales) at Suzuki Motorcycles that makers the country’s highest-selling superbike, Hayabusa.

Superbikes are big performance, designer bikes with engine capacity of 1,000 cc and more.

All the six superbike firms—Yahama, Suzuki, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Honda and Kawasaki (launched by Bajaj Auto)—have been focusing on consumers in the metro cities.

While most of the demand comes from Mumbai-Pune, Bangalore and Delhi belt, increasing demand from the mountains have come as an unexpected boon for the bikemakers.

Bikemakers say an increase in disposable income is one of the key reasons for a rise in demand. Availability of on-the-spot services introduced for the niche segment has also propelled demand from the mountains, they add.

“We have special teams to service these bikes across the country. This has boosted the confidence of the consumer, and this has translated into better sales,” said Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India head (marketing & sales) NK Rattan.
Yamaha’s marketing & sales head Pankaj Dubey said the actual numbers coming from north-east mountain region is not as significant as the metros, but they are crucial.

“For this super-niche segment every unit sold makes a lot of difference to our sales strategy,” he said.

Mumbai, along with Pune, remains the biggest market accounting for around one in every three superbikes sold. This is followed by Delhi and Bangalore, accounting for around 20% of the overall sales.

Superbikes sales in India were restricted to few dozen units until Yamaha introduced its twin products—YZF R1 and MT01—in 2008. These were followed by the launch of Suzuki Intruder and Hayabusa, which is now the top seller (106 units sold till date).

While Suzuki has sold 210 superbikes, Yamaha and Honda have sold 158 and 70 bikes, respectively. Marketers expect the segment to grow to 1,000 units-a-year by 2011 from around 600 unit sold in 2009.