Hero Honda is expected to continue its leadership in the motorcycle market in November, though it is slated to report lesser sales figures.
MUMBAI: Hero Honda is expected to continue its leadership in the motorcycle market in November, though it is slated to report lesser sales figures from the previous month.
In comparison, Bajaj Auto will more or less sustain the October momentum and close the gap with the market leader.
According to industry sources, the present sales momentum indicates that Hero Honda will report November sales of around 2.75 lakh motorcycles (against over 3.5 lakh units in October), with Bajaj hot in pursuit at 2.4 lakh bikes (2.48 lakh).
TVS Motor is tipped to improve its previous month’s showing of 68,000 units and finish at nearly 80,000 bikes.
November will, hence, close at about 6 lakh bikes for the Big Three, with the Japanese trio of Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, Yamaha and Suzuki, accounting for another 50,000 units between them.
This will translate into a fall of nearly 12% from the September levels but this was expected because of stocks piling up at dealerships and the obvious need to cut back production.
Sources say that Bajaj’s move to slash Platina’s price by Rs 4,000 has paid off rich dividends with customers queuing up to buy the bike.
“The waiting list in some dealerships is over a month,” they add. The fact that XCD continues to do brisk business with monthly sales at the 40,000 mark has also helped boost volumes.
Both the Bajaj bikes have, to an extent, hit Hero Honda’s sales of CD Dawn and Splendor, though it may be too early at this point to infer that the market paradigm is changing.
Like Maruti in the car segment, Hero Honda enjoys tremendous customer loyalty and has time and again showed that it is capable of bouncing back strongly.
This was especially apparent in 2001-02 when it was losing market share rapidly, especially with the launch of TVS Victor, which threatened to upset the Splendor applecart.
However, Hero Honda staged a revival, thanks to aggressive retailing and launch of new products like the Passion.
However, the challenge this time around is that the company has not done anything remarkable yet in the executive segment (where Splendor and Passion bring in the numbers) in terms of product development and could risk losing market share in the process.
And when TVS launches the 125cc Flame next month, customers will have an alternative to Passion and Super Splendor.
Hero Honda has been aggressive on discounts but, as observers say, this may not be the best of options from its bottomline’s point of view.
The company has, therefore, introduced premium bikes like the Hunk and CBZ X-Treme but continues to bank on Splendor and Passion for big numbers.
Bajaj, in contrast, is focusing on profitable models like Pulsar, Discover and XCD, which it says helps offset low margins on bikes like Platina.
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