Although they were in deep red, Honda sales in FY20 were relatively better than most other 2-wheeler makers. Here are the reasons…
The last 16-17 months have been terrible for the overall auto industry. As we have shared in our report earlier (here), last fiscal’s numbers are almost a bloodbath for the 2-wheeler segment with sales losses of upto 28 percent among mainstream manufacturers.
Apart from Suzuki, which was the only player which ended the year on a positive, we could pick Honda as the second best maker which did relatively better than others. This, when it showed a degrowth of 14.75 percent. All the others – Hero, Bajaj, TVS, Royal Enfield reported bigger sales losses.
In an interview Yadvinder Singh Guleria, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing at HMSI said that planning was the key. He elaborated that after the major increase in mandatory insurance (for two-wheelers), Honda corrected the inventory at its dealerships.
The company also was the first to start selling BS6 two-wheelers almost six months ahead of the due date. Planned subsequent launches of five other BS6 motorcycles and scooters meant that the brand could log double digit growth in dispatches in March 2020 when all others were in the red.
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He also said that everybody was wondering how much would be an appropriate hike in prices from BS4 to BS6 and with the launch of Activa 125, the 10-14 percent increase became a norm in the country.
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However, Honda has only updated a handful of its (high-selling) products to BS6 till now. This means that a large chunk from its mainstream portfolio remains to get a switch to the new era.
Source – Economic Times
