Festival sales: Honda Motorcycle banks less on discounts, more on other schemes

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) on Friday said rural demand is returning to to pre-Covid levels and it is optimistic about the festival season.

Although the company doesn’t plan significant discounts, it is taking other steps to woo customers.

The company has started a retail financing scheme from October 1, which offers low interest rates and discounts up to ₹11,000 if the customer is taking a loan for three years or using a credit card to purchase a product.

“We are seeing good positive traction and sales are increasing month-on-month. Last month we crossed 5 lakh sales after many months, we see a good momentum in the upcoming festival season,” Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Director, Sales and Marketing, HMSI told reporters on a conference call.

Rural sales are around 23 per cent of overall sales, which is around the same as pre-Covid times.

“We were not getting volume uptick till Unlock 3.0, but now unlock happening in the urban areas as well, and close to 95 per cent of our network is open. Almost similar contributions from urban and rural areas are coming as before the pandemic. So, we are not seeing much of a difference in urban and rural sales,” said Guleria.

“Initially, up to Unlock 3.0, the majority of urban India was under lockdown and these were big two-wheeler markets — whether it is Greater Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai or Kolkata — so more sales were coming from rural areas at that point in time,” he added.

The company recently reported domestic wholesale sales of 5,00,887 units in September, a 10 per cent growth as compared to 4,55,896 units in September 2019.

And, per Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations data, the company registered sales of 2,59,935 units of two-wheelers during the month, up 26 per cent YoY.

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