The Hindu Business Line : Two-wheeler sales: Road to revival?

May sales numbers of the three two-wheeler majors reinforce the turnaround in growth numbers witnessed in April, pointing to a possible end to the slump that has ravaged the industry over the past year.

Both Bajaj Auto and TVS Motors have continued to post increases in sales, with the sales volumes of the former growing at 4.2 per cent (16.7 per cent in April) and the latter, at about 4.5 per cent in both April and May.

These two companies had clocked a 19 per cent fall in sales volume during the April 2007-March 2008 period. Sales of Hero Honda too continued to remain in positive territory since April after three months (January, February and March) of de-growth.

Stronger sales for products in the sub-125cc segment seem to be the primary growth driver for all three companies, indicating that consumers are probably upgrading to higher-end products.

Although Hero Honda has grown on the back of increased volumes from the Splendor NXG, Hunk and Xtreme, it still derives a majority of its revenues from bikes of sub-125 cc.

Bajaj Auto, on the other hand, has a stronger portfolio in the higher-end segments.

For TVS Motors, the much-awaited launch of the Flame and upcoming variants of the Apache RTR are expected to bolster volumes over the next few months.

Passenger cars

After a blip in sales in March, Maruti has been back in business in the first two months of this fiscal, growing by about 16 per cent in May.

A moderation in growth in the A3 segment (18 per cent in May against 97 per cent in April ) is on expected lines due to the base effect created by product launches. While DZire made its debut in April this year, the SX4 was launched only in May last year.

Tata Motors has continued with an unimpressive show in passenger cars in May, with Indica volumes declining by 19 per cent. It had earlier shown a fall of about 6.25 per cent in 2007-08.

However, the launch of the LPG version of the Indica may help revive flagging sales over the next few months.

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