The Shrinking 125cc Motorcycle Segment in India! Bajaj Kicked Out of the Game!

Note: All sales figures mentioned here are official SIAM sourced numbers

The 125cc segment in India provided an optimum to a rider – one who didn’t want to spend a 150cc bike like money but needed more power but at the same time did not want to part with the fuel efficiency of 100ccs. However, there is an interesting trend that is developing. We sat back and analyzed the monthly sales data for the bygone financial year and came up with an this finding – the shrinking 125cc motorcycle segment.

125cc-Shine-SS125-Discover-Glamour

Key Pointers

We are not using figures and percentages to keep it very simple…

  • It is the only segment which has seen a fall in yearly sales and that too by a big margin
  • All manufacturers have registered sales drop for the last three months.
  • The biggest looser is Bajaj which has dropped to single thousand digit monthly sales. If we consider cumulative sales, Bajaj has been reduced to less than half of what they were last year despite innumerable ABCD Discovers! It is clear that they have been kicked out of the game by the mighty Heros and Hondas, at least in this segment!
  • Similar is the case with TVS which has registered less than half the sales of last financial year!
  • Even the largest selling 125cc Shine couldn’t save Honda from a massive sales drop in March 2015 vis-a-vis the same month in 2014. However, they are the only manufacturer who have grown in sales on yearly basis!
  • Suzuki’s slingshots are just not hitting the target. Time for something new, something fresher Japs!

125cc Motorcycle Sales Figures

125cc motorcycles monthly sales

But what is the reason…? Wasn’t 125cc supposed to become the best of both worlds? Here is our analysis…

The Reasons:

  • 110cc Segment: The advent of the 110cc segment could have acted as a choker for the 125cc segment. With ever evolving technology, they have managed to produce higher power outputs without registering any significant drop in fuel efficiency. They offer the perfect balance of power-fuel efficiency combo of the 125ccs and 100ccs respectively.
  • No Interesting Launch: The last ‘interesting’ launches in this segment were the Stunner and Gladiator. For quite sometime manufacturers have not really introduced something which could create a wave. The latest Yamaha Saluto appears to be just another 125cc whose presence or absence will not make much of a difference!
  • No Real Promotion: We do not really remember seeing any widespread big-budget promotion of any of the 125ccs in the market.
  • Maturing Market: With the market maturing and people opening up to bigger capacity bikes, many of them who want more power are graduating to 150ccs. This is specially true because of the lack of price difference between the 125ccs and entry level 150ccs.

What is the future of this segment can not be predicted at this moment, but what we will really want is to see some interesting product launches soon….