After years of trailing behind scooter sales in terms of growth, motorcycles have finally gathered enough pace to leave them behind in the dust. In the April to November period of this year, motorcycle sales grew at 13.36 per cent to 9.7 million units, whereas scooter sales grew at 5.7 per cent to 4.9 million units.
The growth has seen motorcycle’s share in the domestic two-wheeler market increase by around 2 per cent to 64 per cent over the last one year. On the contrary, scooters’ share in the two-wheeler market, which had gone up from 24.3 per cent in FY14 to 33.2 per cent in FY18, has come down to 32.3 per cent as of the end of October this year.
Experts say motorcycles will continue to hold the pace this financial year. “In the automotive market, rural belts have performed better than urban centers. Bikes, being more popular in rural belts because of their build-up and fuel efficiency, will continue their strong run in the coming months,” said an industry official.
On the slow growth seen in the scooter segment, the official added, “Scooter demand, which mainly comes from the urban market, has reached a saturation point.”
The change in the demand has also impacted market shares of two-wheelers makers. “Expect Hero’s and Bajaj’s market share to go up by the end of current fiscal significantly, whereas Honda will see a slight reduction,” an analyst said. Honda Motorcycle India (HMIL) sells the country’s most popular scooter Activa and has recorded a drop of 9 per cent in domestic sales last month, while Hero MotoCorp, which sells country’s most popular bike Splendor, saw sales go up by 9 per cent. Bajaj Auto also witnessed a whopping 30 per cent jump in sales last month.