Its Official – TVS Overtakes Hero as 2nd Largest Scooter Seller: Hero Only Maker to Witness Decline

A lot has been talked about motorcycles but let us have a look at scooter sales – and believe us this is THE hot segment out there…

If there is one manufacturer which is doing it silently but very efficiently it has to be TVS! Without making any noise, they outwitted Bajaj for the third spot in the overall two-wheeler sales and is now becoming more consistent with their scooters. The Chennai based two-wheeler manufacturer has displaced Hero as the second largest scooter seller in India in the last financial year (ie April 2016 to March 2017 period).

Honda continued its golden run and it is nothing short of a miracle that they witnessed a massive 14 percent growth on a huge base! To put it in numbers, they sold almost 4 lakh units more than last year. They are invincible at the moment and nobody is remotely close.

TVS was trailing Hero in last financial year sales but they turned the tables this year and displaced the erstwhile Honda partner by registering a 7 percent growth. They sold 52,000 units more than last fiscal.

TVS also appears to be better placed to launch a bigger capacity motorcycle than Hero…

Yamaha was the pick of the manufacturers as they grew by over 1.2 lakh units (and 38 percent) over last year. Clearly, their Fascino and Rays are doing the trick. Suzuki also registered impressive scooter sales but that is primarily on the back of their Access. They must do something about the 100 cc segment to stay in the game. Let’s despite being a lovely product, hasn’t found traction. They registered a growth of 60,000 more scooters or 27% (as compared to last year).

TVS-Graphite-Concept-Scooter-at-Auto-Expo
TVS may introduce a 125 cc scooter in India, sooner than Hero

Hero – The Lone Loser

Hero MotoCorp is the only manufacturer which witnessed a decline in the fast-growing scooter segment. They registered about 28,000 lesser scooter sales in this year. It is only because of this fall, they gifted their position to TVS but what is more worrying for them is that their indigenous scooters are reporting problems and in a recent incident that came to light – they have denied a recall or issues when proofs of them instructing dealerships to change four parts surfaced (more details).

125 cc scooter Dare showcased by Hero at 2014 Auto Expo – Not Launched yet!

It is a concern for them because number of TVS’ dealerships is nowhere close to Hero and if they (TVS) can outgrow them with the existing infrastructure, they could have sold much more if they had Hero-type of reach.

scooter sales - ZIR
150cc scooter ZIR, showcased at 2014 Auto Expo – Not launched yet!

Scooter Sales – Top Manufacturers in FY 2017

Manufacturer Sales FY 17 Sales FY 16 Growth
Honda 31,89,012 27,89,537 14%
TVS 8,26,291 7,73,597 7%
Hero 7,89,974 8,18,777 -4%
Yamaha 4,40,423 3,18,450 38%
Suzuki 2,80,783 2,20,388 27%

(sales period April 2016 to March 2017. Official SIAM data.)

Among other smaller manufacturers, on the back of the demand of their Aprilia SR150, Piaggio witnessed a very impressive increment whereas Mahindra seems to be out of the game now – as they reported massive decline in sales.

Even if we fast forward to the first quarter of this financial year, things look pretty similar with TVS outselling Hero (and Hero trailing behind their last year Q1 numbers).

Scooter Sales – Top Manufacturers in Quarter 1 FY 2018

Manufacturer Sales FY 17 Sales FY 16 Growth
Honda 973725 797114 22%
TVS 249077 183805 35%
Hero 209790 210876 -0.5%
Yamaha 109476 103179 6%
Suzuki 89323 56424 58%

Quite clearly, this transition from Honda to Hero has not worked in their favour. And also take a look at what Suzuki has done in this quarter – with a whopping 58% growth they have come very close to Yamaha. Things are surely turning interesting in this fiercely fought segment, and let us hope who is the first one to venture in the 150cc scooter segment…

Next Read: ‘Why Hero is in Danger & May Get Lost’ – Analysis by BA Reader from IIM