Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has upstaged Bajaj Auto to become the second largest bike maker in India during April, which has also pushed it within a striking distance of overtaking market leader Hero as the largest two-wheeler maker.
"We're happy that for the first time, we've become the No 2 motorcycle-maker, overtaking Bajaj Auto by a wide margin (over 21,330 units). This was possible after our overall sales jumped 34 percent in April. Our bikes volume rose 22 percent to 1,83,266 units from 1,50,711 a year ago," HMSI senior VP for sales and marketing YS Guleria said.
As against this, Bajaj Auto saw its domestic sales plunge 19 percent to 1,61,930 units in April from 2,00,433 units. With this, the Japanese company leads the Pune-based Bajaj by a wide margin of 21,336 units, while it has narrowed the margin with Hero to just 12,377 units, making it within a striking distance from the numero uno crown.
The Japanese major began fiscal 2018 on a high note with a 34 percent spike in sales taking its volumes to a record high of 5,78,929 units, making it the best-ever monthly sales for the company.
While HeromotorCorp saw its sales decline by 3.5 percent to 5,91,306 units in the month. The volume jump was led by a massive 40 percent rise in its flagship scooter Activa which crossed for the first time 3.5 lakh monthly sales at 3,68,618, which also is a record for the company.Also Read: Honda CBR 650F Review: Performance Backed by Practicality
When asked whether HMSI is hopeful of maintaining the lead over Bajaj going forward, Guleria parried a direct answer saying, "Our present capacity allows us to sell only 1.5-1.8 lakh bikes a month and I am confident of fully utilising that capacity. Having begun fiscal 2018 year on a high, we're looking forward to meeting the target set for the year-- 20 percent volume growth at 6 million units over 5 million units in fiscal 2017".
When asked if Honda will continue to narrow the gap with Hero and overtake it sooner than later to be the largest two-wheeler company, Guleria again avoided a direct answer. "We are limited by our capacity now which is at 5.8 million per annum while Hero has about 7.8 million installed capacity. I can say anything about such an eventuality only after we open our new assembly line (11th one) in Karnataka in July. From August-September, we will be able to sell more. Currently, my focus is on meeting the huge demand for scooters as the waiting period has shot up to over 30,000 units now. We can't also add another shift as all the 10 assembly lines are running at full capacity with two shifts for long now".
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