The scooter juggernaut rolls on

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India sold an average of 1.85 lakh scooter per month during April and May this year. It is quite likely that the two-lakh mark will be achieved this month given that the company was short by just 5,000 units in May.

By the second half of next fiscal, HMSI will have commissioned its Gujarat plant, largely earmarked for scooters. It will raise the company’s annual output of two-wheelers to 5.8 million units of which at least 3.6 million will come from scooters. Simply put, HMSI will be comfortably producing over 300,000 scooters each month within the next two years.

By this time, Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor Company could be doing a lot higher than their present monthly output of over 60,000 scooters apiece. And with Yamaha and Suzuki complementing the parade, annual scooter production could be in the region of six million units by the end of 2015-16.

This will be a substantial jump from 3.6 million units posted last fiscal and, in the process scooters will take up a third of overall two-wheeler output in India. At present, they account for nearly 25 per cent but with HMSI leading the charge over the next two years, the proportion will only increase rapidly.

For Honda, this has been an astonishing story since the time it established its Indian arm 15 years ago. The Activa has today emerged the largest selling scooter brand in the country and is getting stronger by the day with support coming in from the Dio and Aviator.

Honda, though, was no stranger to the Indian two-wheeler landscape thanks to its joint ventures with Kinetic and Hero. In tandem with the former, it ushered in the gearless scooter revolution during the 1980s and, more importantly, in a scenario where motorcycles were poised to take over from the geared scooter monopoly. After parting ways with Kinetic, Honda wasted little time in setting up shop on its own. It has not looked back since.

It is now a million dollar question if the growth momentum in scooters will continue through the decade and upset the motorcycle applecart. Not everyone is convinced this will happen in a hurry as bikes still offer the twin benefits of power and mileage. The transition to scooters has been more profound in the ASEAN region but this may not hold true for India, at least for now.

This explains why Honda and Yamaha are still looking for big numbers in motorcycles because that is where the real market potential lies.

Yet, there is no denying the fact that scooters are rapidly gaining ground across India. With overcrowded buses and trains, youngsters find it a lot easier getting across in their scooters.

Manufactures are also pulling out all stops in style and design to woo their increasingly discerning buyers.

In the midst of this scooter frenzy, Bajaj Auto has chosen to focus on motorcycles as part of its mantra to remain a specialist. For the erstwhile monarch of scooters where the Hamara Bajaj theme still resonates among old-timers, it is a remarkable strategy considering that every other manufacturer has thrown its hat into the scooter arena.

Bajaj, however, remains the country’s most profitable automaker and will attribute this to the fact that it has stayed focused in the motorcycle space and, in particular, to growing the Pulsar and Discover brands. Bajaj will also point out in its defence that other motorcycle specialists like KTM, Triumph and Ducati are doing very well for themselves sans scooters.

Will the company then steer clear of the scooter space even as growth opportunities beckon in India? Will it be tempted to build numbers and market share and finally make scooters all over again? The answers will, perhaps, be known in the next couple of years as scooters continue their good run.

COMMENT NOW