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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 19 Hero Honda, the top two-wheeler maker has projected that the two-wheeler industry growth would slide to a single digit in the coming months amid high interest rates and limited availability of finance as against a double digit increase recorded in the first few months of the fiscal.

The company, which makes more than half the two-wheelers sold in the country, however, hopes to sustain the same growth momentum that it has maintained in the past year and a half.

“Last year some of the customers postponed sales due to high interest rates. But they could no longer postpone their purchases, which reflected in increased sales in the first few months of this fiscal. But, in the coming months, the two-wheeler industry may not see the same double digit growth that it saw in the first few months,” said Mr Anil Dua, Vice-President (Sales and Marketing), at the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry marketing summit.

When asked about the company’s sales outlook for the year, Mr Dua said, “Even when the industry was declining last year, Hero Honda continued to grow. So we hope to sustain the momentum that we achieved so far,” he added.

The company said in April that it would launch 12 models, including variants in 18 months.

“We have already launched one model so far and are on track to launch rest of the models in the next 13 months,” he stated.

Referring on the impact of price hike, he commented that since the price hike on two-wheelers was implemented across the industry, it would not have any impact on sales. Two-wheeler companies such as Hero, Honda, Bajaj and TVS had increased the prices of their models in the range of Rs 500-2,000 in the last few weeks on account of high commodity prices affecting their margins.

More Stories on : Two/Three Wheelers | Hero Honda Motors Ltd

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