Discounts help bike firms offload BS-III stock

Hero MotoCorp said 'almost' all BS-III two-wheelers have been sold

A huge interest from buyers for heavily discounted Bharat Stage-III (BS-III) vehicles enabled dealers of top two-wheeler makers in the country to beat the deadline and exhaust their stocks by Friday noon. Many of them pulled the shutters down as soon as they completed the sales.

 

The discounts of up to Rs 20,000 on various two-wheelers helped companies such as Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, Bajaj and TVS Motor to circumvent the crisis emerging out of the Supreme Court order on BS-III (emission norm) vehicles.

 

With its wide sales network, the industry has managed to sell a few hundred thousand two-wheelers in two days. The discounts were significant, considering that the price of an average two-wheeler is in the range of Rs 40,000-50,000.

 

Many also offered free insurance on such vehicles. Companies will reimburse the discounts to dealers.

 

“In the past two days, we have taken tactical steps to assist our dealers and incentivise the customers with an objective to liquidate the remaining BS-III stocks. By the end of Friday, we would have sold almost all of our BS-III inventory.

 

As a public limited company, we have thereby tried to minimise the losses of all our stakeholders,” said Pawan Munjal, chairman-managing director and chief executive officer at Hero MotoCorp, country’s largest two-wheeler maker.

 

Roy Kurian, vice-president (sales & marketing) at Yamaha India, said the company had a stock of about 20,000 BS-III vehicles on Wednesday noon, when the Supreme Court ordered the ban on sales of these vehicles from April 1.

 

“We have liquidated about 99 per cent of the BS-III vehicles in two days,” he said, helped by discounts of up to Rs 10,000. Navratri, which started on Tuesday and considered an auspicious period for purchases, was a factor in aiding sales.

 

Excited by the discounts, buyers thronged dealerships, leading to chaos and confusion at many places. One doubt even at several dealerships was whether these vehicles will be eligible for registration by the transport authorities.

 

The Supreme Court had clarified that all vehicles adhering to BS-III norms sold till March 31 could be registered later only with proof. However, no sale can take place from April 1. “We have been too busy since Thursday. But footfalls peaked on Friday and more than a 100 BS-III two-wheelers were sold in a few hours,” said a Honda dealer in Bihar.

 

In Chennai, there was a massive rush at dealerships, said the chief at one of the companies, forcing him to call the police to manage angry customers, who had to leave disappointed. Some of them complained that the dealers had booked vehicles in their employees’ name.

 

John K Paul, president of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, said till Friday noon more than 90 per cent of the vehicles in the country had been sold, while some volumes might be left in the rural markets.

 

The industry’s BS-III inventory was of 670,000 two-wheelers as on March 20.

 

With the heavy buying in the past two days, the industry will be left with a few tens of thousands of vehicles. Most have indicated that export opportunities will be explored for the unsold stocks after March 31.