Bajaj is India’s highest 2-wheeler exporter and by a massive margin. It is using this to its advantage in this slowdown in the domestic market…
After coming precariously close to Hero MotoCorp many many years back, Bajaj has fallen to the fourth place in the domestic two-wheeler market in India. However, if you are unaware, it has been the largest exporter of its motorcycles from India and the difference with the second place holder is massive! In combined numbers, it is much bigger than TVS in overall sales and still the second largest motorcycle seller in the country, ahead of Honda, TVS and others.
Indian market has been on a rocky trail for the last many months. Despite trying their best, almost all the major makers are in the red in this year’s cumulative numbers so far (Domestic Jan 2020 sales numbers here). It is in these times, reliance on exports helps in cushioning your balance sheets. Bajaj has achieved an interesting feat of selling higher number of motorcycles in exports than the domestic market in the last two months of December 2019 and January 2020.
According to the official sales data shared by SIAM, in January 2020, Bajaj produced 3,19,779 2-wheelers. It sold 1,57,796 units in our domestic market and a higher number – 1,74,546 units were exported out of India. In cumulative sales (numbers from April 19 to Jan 20), however, export numbers (46 percent) are only slightly more than their traditional position of roughly 40 percent of domestic numbers.
Slowdown: 28.68 Lakh Less 2-Wheelers Sold in India This Year So Far
Bajaj has registered total domestic sales of 18.33 lakh units which is a loss of 14 percent as compared to its previous year’s numbers during the same period. But this got cushioned with exports of 15.93 Lakh units which is an increment of almost 10 percent over the corresponding period of 2018-19. Just for reference, TVS, which is the second largest exporter from India registered exports of 5.73 Lakh units in the same period. You see the gap..?