Two-wheeler sales in India rise 9% YoY, still below pre-pandemic levels

Honda emerged as the top two-wheeler seller in India in September, followed by Hero and TVS Motor. Ola Electric was the top EV seller

Two-wheeler sales in India rose 9.02 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in September from 931,654 units in September 2021 to 1,015,702 units in 2022. However, it is 14 per cent lower than the 1,181,668 units sold in September 2019, the latest figures by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) revealed.

"Due to increased input costs, two-wheeler companies raised prices by five times in the past year. Apart from this, RBIs fight with inflation saw rate hikes which continued to make vehicle loans expensive. While India is showing revival signs, Bharat is yet to perform," FADA President Manish Raj Singhania said.

"Two-wheeler especially entry-level vehicles are finding extremely few buyers thus dragging the entire segment," he added.

The report showed that in September, the average inventory for two-wheelers ranged from 45-50 days.

In the two-wheeler segment, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India recorded the highest sale of 284,160 units with a market share of 27.98 per cent in September. It overtook Hero Motocorp to become the highest-selling two-wheeler brand in India.

Hero sold 250,246 units with a market share of 24.64 per cent.

In September 2021, the market share of Hero and Honda was 29.91 per cent and 25.83 per cent, respectively.

TVS Motor Company Ltd sold the third-highest number of two-wheelers at 170,796 units with a market share of 16.82 per cent.

Among the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers, Ola Electric recorded the highest number of two-wheeler sales. It sold 9,432 units with a market share of 0.93 per cent.

The FADA report showed that Ola was followed by Okinawa Autotech and Hero Electric with 8,172 and 7,880 units, respectively.

"The enquiry level in the two-wheeler segment is showing positive movement," FADA said.

"If this segment, especially entry-level two-wheeler also performs well improving its growth to low double digits, overall Auto Retail will see higher growth compared to last 2 festivals but may still lag pre-covid numbers of October 2019," it added.