The Hindu Business Line : Honda Motorcycle bets big on 2-wheelers in Q4

Mumbai, Jan. 8 Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) is eyeing sales of at least 2.5 lakh units during January-March, which will see its production exceed the targeted one-million mark for this fiscal.

Towards the end of March, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Honda will launch a new product, tipped to be another gearless scooter on the lines of its successful 100cc Activa.

“We hope to end the year with 60,000 units more than the targeted one million and are well on course to meeting the goal of 1.2 million units during 2009-10,” top HMSI officials told Business Line. Its ancillary suppliers were, however, more upbeat reiterating that the company would end up with somewhere close to 1.4 million units by the end of next fiscal.

This is also the time when HMSI will launch the 100cc motorcycle, a product segment where Hero Honda, its India sibling, reigns supreme with the Splendor and Passion. HMSI is betting big on its own offering, which is targeted at the youth and expected to weave the same magic as the recently launched 125cc Stunner.

Sources say it will be interesting to see how HMSI and Hero Honda will co-exist in the market place with similar capacity motorcycles. “We realise there will be some amount of cannibalisation, but are working hard to ensure that this does not happen with higher degrees of exclusivity in our models,” HMSI officials said.

Market share

The company, which is less than a decade old, has a near 15 per cent market share in the two-wheeler segment. Till December 2008, its production numbers for this fiscal totalled 7.96 lakh two-wheelers, of which scooters accounted for 5.12 lakh and motorcycles took up the rest.

What is especially significant is that December saw the company sell 87,000 units in the domestic market (exports account for 5-7 per cent), which was only behind Hero Honda’s 2.10 lakh two-wheelers (1.97 lakh of these being motorcycles).

HMSI was ahead of Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor for the second successive month and, with Hero Honda, accounted for nearly three lakh units of the 4.6 lakh sold. This translated into an overall market share of nearly 61 per cent for the combined Honda entity in India.

HMSI, which set up operations here less than a decade ago, is the clear leader in the gearless scooter segment thanks largely to its flagship model, Activa, along with the Dio and Aviator. It entered the motorcycle arena only in 2004 with the 150cc Unicorn whose performance was never in doubt but was a let down in design and styling. The next motorcycle, the 125cc Shine, was more contemporary and monthly sales average 18,000 units against the Unicorn’s 8,000.

It’s with the Stunner that HMSI has struck paydirt with monthly numbers closer to the 11,000-unit mark already. In the process, the company’s sales of these three motorcycles between April and December of this fiscal are close to 2.81 lakh units, more than the whole of 2007-08 at 2.78 lakh units. The Stunner was introduced this fiscal and has been the critical growth driver for bikes since.

Related Stories:
Honda Motorcycle to expand capacity at Manesar plant

More Stories on : Outlook | Two/Three Wheelers

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page