Hero has assured all its dealers not to worry about the unsold BS4 motorcycles and scooters. However, there are a lot of details that are not known…
Supreme Court of India back in 2018 announced that no manufacturer will be allowed to sell Bharat Stage 4 compliant vehicles in India from 1st April 2020. This was applicable for motorcycles, scooters, passenger cars, commercial vehicles, etc.
Now, when we are barely a day or two away from the deadline, it has emerged that few two-wheeler makers are sitting on huge inventory of unsold BS4 stock. According to a report (link here) Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India have the highest inventory of BS4 compliant two-wheelers – which could run into few lakh units.
Hero MotoCorp and Federation of Automobiles Dealers Associations (FADA) knocked the Supreme Court multiple times for some relaxation, however, that was not honored. It was on the wake of the current lockdown situation in the country that the top court has granted additional 10 days (post lockdown). However, there are various conditions. One of them is that makers can not sell more than 10 percent of their leftover stock! This leaves a question mark on the remaining 90 percent of the stock (considering that makers will exhaust the allocated 10 percent of the stock once the lockdown is lifted).
Amidst all this, it is the dealers that are impacted the most. Because the manufacturers have already billed the 2-wheelers lying with dealers and if they go unsold, all the losses will have to be borne by the dealers.
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In a latest update, Hero MotoCorp is learnt to have assured its dealer partners that they should not worry about the unsold stock as the company will absorb all of it. These are very assuring words but Pawan Munjal, head of Hero, in his interaction with dealer principals, have not shared how will the company do it. He has just said that his teams will reach out to all the dealers soon.
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It is not known what will Hero do with such a massive stock. Chances are that it may either export it to various countries where it can sell 2-wheelers complying to BS4 emission norms, or it may upgrade them to BS6 compliance – or it could be a mix of both.
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There has been no official comment on this matter by Hero yet. Chances are that other makers may also be forced to do it. Meanwhile, rival maker TVS has announced ‘LAST CHANCE OFFER’ with cash discounts of Rs 11,000. You can read more details here.
Source – Livemint
