Next fiscal to remain challenging with increase in product prices due to BS VI transition: HMSI

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) on Thursday said the next financial year is again going to be challenging in terms of sales for the company, with the prices of two-wheelers set to go up by up to 15 per cent with BS-VI transition taking place from April this year.

The company, which on Thursday launched an all-new BS-VI compliant version of its super bike Africa Twin Adventure Sports, said it would be difficult for the manufacturers to bring in customers to showrooms with price of BS-VI versions going up significantly.

"Next financial year is going to be another challenging year for us, one because 100 per cent transition is going to happen into BS-VI. So, every manufacturer would now have to chase the customer at totally different price points and these price points would be higher by 10-15 per cent," HMSI Senior Vice-President (Sales and Marketing) Yadvinder Singh Guleria told PTI.

Giving an example, he said that if any customer was planning to buy a two-wheeler on August 31, 2018, but somehow did not make that purchase and now, if he buys that same vehicle on April 1, 2020, he will have to shell out 20-25 per cent more.

Prices of two-wheelers have gone up due to increase in insurance premium, addition of safety equipment due to new regulations and planned transition from BS-IV to BS-VI emission regime from next month, Guleria noted.

When asked if the company is also facing component supply disruption due to the coronavirus outbreak, he said, "So far, till yesterday's (Wednesday) production, we did not have any impact. One of the reason is that we have effectively used our global supply chain support in getting and sourcing the components from. That has helped us."