Market leader Hero MotoCorp reported a growth of 26.4% to sell more than half a million units in the domestic market in the month under consideration.
The company said it expects demand to remain strong on the back of the recent product launches in the premium segment and good consumer sentiments in the ongoing festive season. Hero sold 559,766 two-wheelers last month compared to 442,825 units sold in the year-ago period.
Rival Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) posted a growth of 8.6% to sell 462,747 units in October. Meanwhile, TVS Motor Company said it’s domestic two-wheeler sales grew by a fourth to 344,957 units last month. Pune-based Bajaj Auto too saw sales of two-wheelers go up by 35% to 278,486 units in the period under review.
While official industry sales data will only be released by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) later this month, dealers confirmed the momentum in the two-wheeler segment is positive.
Manish Raj Singhania, President, Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA) said, “Festive season is going well. And this time dealers too have had good levels of stock. At the retail level, consumer demand has been strong. Sales seem to have grown in double-digits so far. Two-wheelers particularly are doing well, albeit the base is lower when compared with passenger cars.” Industry estimates sales of two-wheelers have gone up by about a fifth so far this month. At the higher end of the market, Royal Enfield posted a growth of 6% to sell 80,958 units in October.
But even as two-wheeler sales are on a recovery mode, industry executives said, it will take some more time to reclaim peak annual sales of 21 million units seen in FY19.