Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the second largest two-wheeler firm in India by volumes, is confident of sustaining strong double-digit growth during the current financial year at a time when motorcycle sales have hit speed breakers and two-wheeler growth has fallen to a low single digit.
The company’s entry into the mass segment has also proved successful, as the Japanese two-wheeler major has sold over a lakh units of its first mass segment bike Dream Yuga in three-four months and it intends to treble the volumes by the end of this financial year.
“If we look at the domestic demand in the first half of FY13, the demand for two-wheelers has grown by only three per cent, while HMSI has grown 49 per cent. Honda is seeing its sales expand in both motorcycle (64 per cent growth) and automatic scooters (39 per cent growth),” Y S Guleria, vice-president – sales and marketing, HMSI told Financial Chronicle.
Traditionally, September month is reported to be a lean period for manufacturers. Despite the slowdown, HMSI registered a robust growth of 38 per cent this September. “We have emerged as the fastest growing two-wheeler company in India with the launch of seven new exciting products across all motorcycle & scooter segments including Dream Yuga in mass motorcycle segment, rapid expansion of Honda’s sales & service network outlets and full utilisation of increased production capacity at Tapukara (Rajasthan) plant,” he added.
The company has also made a mark in the challenging mass segment (100-110cc) of motorcycle industry with its first product Dream Yuga. Honda’s first offering in the segment has received very encouraging response. Over 100,000 units have been sold till date and current bookings are around 4,000 units. “Looking at current enquiries and bookings level at our dealerships in both rural and urban areas and last three months sale, we have recently ramped up the daily production of Dream Yuga & are confident of selling three lakh units of Dream Yuga within this financial year,” he said.
According to Siam classification, 75-110cc segment accounted for about 66 per cent of motorcycle volumes during April-August period. “The 100cc segment of bikes could be further classified into three sub-segments based on price Rs 35,000-40,000, Rs 40,000-45,000 and Rs 45,000-50,000 — representative of a wide price range with presence of features (or lack thereof) appealing to a diverse set of customer needs. Hero MotoCorp has been the market leader in this segment, offers 20 variants distributed amongst its three brands — CD Dawn, Splendor and Passion, “ said an Icra report.
Looking at the demographics of this segment, Honda is rapidly increasing its market penetration through adding 500 sales & service outlets in tier I and tier II cities during FY12-13 which will take its network’s total strength close to 2,000 outlets.
With the excellent response to Dream Yuga in the mass motorcycle segment & production expansion, the company aims to maintain the strong growth momentum in the upcoming festive season too.
