Suzuki motorcycle sales story has a very skewed motorcycle to scooter ratio! The question is – why is the maker doing terrible in the motorcycle segment?
Suzuki is one manufacturer that is doing real good sales in India of late. However, the caveat is that almost all its sales are coming from scooters despite the maker being known the world over for its impeccable GSXRs and Hayabusas. Let me quickly share some numbers which is when you will notice how skewed the motorcycle to scooter ratio is.
Suzuki Motorcycle Sales
| Apr-Sep 2022 | Apr-Sep 2023 | |
| Scooters | 3,52,012 | 4,27,816 |
| Motorcycles | 13,320 | 16,752 |
| Total | 3,65,332 | 4,44,568 |
Key Pointers
Overall sales increment was very healthy and Suzuki managed to sell almost 80,000 units higher than the corresponding period last year, which is a growth of more than 21 percent.
In percentage terms, motorcycle witnessed a growth of over 25 percent, however, in actual numbers, it grew by only 3400 units. Rest almost 75,000 units were added by scooters.
Now comes the most interesting stat – with five different motorcycles in the portfolio, Suzuki could only sell less than 17,000 units in the first six months of this period. That is an average of around 2800 units a month! We are talking about a manufacturer that has been in India since 1982 through a joint venture with TVS Motor and since 2006 as a fully owned subsidiary of Suzuki Japan!
In straightforward terms, a four decade old manufacturer is able to sell only 2800 units a month of its motorcycles! If this isn’t shocking that what is it!
This means that it is only after every 25 scooters Suzuki is able to sell one motorcycle. How skewed is that ratio?
After Hayate, Heat and Zeus, the company strategically exited from the 100cc and 125cc segments and is currently present in the 150cc and 250cc segments in the mass market. Both of these are the hot movers here currently and surprisingly, the Jap is not able to make any kind of inroads even in the segments it chose to stay put!
Why isn’t the management bothered about the non-performance of absolutely brilliant Gixxers?
Why isn’t anybody in the company considering more cost effective motorcycles. India is a mass volume market and who knows better than Maruti-Suzuki?
The Access – which is the soul of Suzuki Motorcycle in India – grew on the basis of being a value product in the 125cc segment. Why isn’t the company trying something on similar lines for motorcycles? The GS150R got a start; it was regarded as a good, value product along with Unicorn. Why didn’t the company build up on those lines?
Despite Being Fabulous Motorcycles Why Don’t Gixxers Sell…?
It appears that Suzuki believes that it has tried this recipe again and again and it can sustain only on premium products in each motorcycle segment. It is mighty wrong and the results are for all of us to see!
Suzuki makes some brilliant motorcycles and it just needs a good management that can respond to the requirements of an average Indian user, who is still buying the age-old Unicorn, Pulsar, etc in large numbers every month! If it can not be a recognizable motorcycle player even after four decades of direct or indirect experience, there is definitely something wrong in the way the company is currently thinking…
What do you think…?
