Honda posts 5% rise in Feb sales; gains 1.4% market share

For the second month in a row after note ban, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) on Wednesday said its February sales grew 5 per cent to 3,69,865 units while the industry as a whole saw flat sales.

This comes against a flat growth for the industry in the reporting month, while for the past three months, the industry sales have been contracting.

This takes HMSI's year-to-date sales (domestic and exports) growth at 13 per cent, while for the industry this is only 5 per cent, HMSI said in a statement.

HMSI also had lost sales in November and December following the note ban, but as the industry continued to decline, its market share in February rose to by 1.4 per cent to 27.2 per cent, the company added.

This has had Honda emerging as the highest volume contributor to the industry throughout the year, with 24,150 units added in the overall two-wheeler industry, Yadvinder Singh Guleria, senior VP for sales & marketing said.

While the industry exports fell 8 per cent YTD, Honda's exports jumped 39 per cent to 2.56 lakh units during April 2016-February 2017 period from 1.84 lakh during the same period last year.

Commenting on the recovery, Guleria said with the continued momentum of recovery post-demonetisation, Honda has emerged as the first choice of two-wheeler customers. This period has seen HMSI growing its market share by 1.4 per cent to 27.2 per cent.

He also said ahead of the BS-IV implementation from next month, Honda has started production of only BS-IV models at all its four plants.