Honda drives half of two-wheeler sales growth in May

Two-wheeler major Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) accounted for almost half of the incremental rise in two-wheeler sales in the country in May, riding on a 19% jump in its volumes.

The company also yanked up its domestic market share by 2% points to 27.5%.

Total sales of the six largest two-wheeler makers -- Hero, Honda, Bajaj, TVS, Royal Enfield and Yamaha -- rose by 1,47,411 units to 17,22,265 units in May, of which HMSI alone accounted for 69,191 units, or 47% of the total incremental volume.

"We have made a very strong start in the new financial year, and we have carried the momentum forward in May as well as Honda was the highest volume gainer in the industry with a contribution of 47%to the incremental total volume," HMSI Senior VP for Sales and Marketing Y S Guleria said.

He said growth was driven mainly by the new models Livo, CB Shine SP and CB Hornet 160R.

Guleria added demand is being driven by urban and semi-urban markets and with the IMD predicting a good monsoon, the company expects positive sentiment in rural areas as well.

In the scooters segment, Guleria said automatic models lead the industry growth and Honda's flagship model Activa continued to be the largest selling two-wheeler in January-April period this year, thanks to additional capacity coming in from its Gujarat plant.

"We are operating at full capacity in all our four plants. However, to further meet the 30,000 back orders for scooters, we are working towards making our second line at the Gujarat plant operational soon," he added.

Honda commissioned the 6-lakh units first line in Gujarat ahead of schedule in February. The second line with a similar capacity will be onstream this month or early July, Gulerai said.

The Japanese two-wheeler major, the second largest player here, sold 4,36,358 units in May, up from 3,67,167 units a year ago, a growth of 19%(including both domestic sales and exports). Out of this, scooter sales rose to 2,68,423 units from 2,15,241 units a year ago, and bikes volume rose to 1,47,479 units from 1,38,140 units.

Its exports crossed the 20,000-units mark the second time at 20,456 units, up over 48%y-o-y.

Honda hopes to cross 5.4 million sales mark for the first time this year from 4.8 million last year.