Two-wheeler Sales: Royal Enfield, Hero, Honda, TVS, Suzuki Beat Pre-COVID Figures

Two-wheeler sales in the country is showing healthy recovery, with some brands even exceeding September 2019’s numbers

While the ongoing coronavirus pandemic massively slowed the economy down in the initial few months, the recovery has been strong among two-wheeler manufacturers in the month of September. In fact, Royal Enfield, Hero MotoCorp, TVS and Suzuki even witnessed a better year-on-year growth. 

Royal Enfield sold 60,041 units in total, including the domestic and export market, registering a growth of 1 percent compared to the same month last year. The brand’s new assembly plant in Argentina should also help reduce the load on its Indian factories, while at the same time enhancing the brand’s export business. Suzuki also witnessed a small year-on-year growth (2.86 percent) with a tally of 71,661 units. TVS witnessed a somewhat better growth than Royal Enfield and Suzuki, at 4.16 percent year-on-year, with 3,13,332 unit sales in total.

The biggest winners (in terms of year-on-year growth) were Yamaha, Hero MotoCorp and Honda, with Yamaha leading the charts. The Japanese bikemaker recorded a healthy 17 percent growth, selling 63,052 units. Yamaha had earlier decided to stay in the premium segment and move away from the commuter space. This decision, coupled with its scooter range graduating to 125cc segment seem to have worked quite well for the brand. Hero, on the other hand sold 7,15,718 units last month – its highest monthly sales since January this year. The company’s massive dealer network sprawling across even remote towns must’ve helped in the brand’s chartbusting sales figures. The brand's sales grew by 16.9 percent in September compared to the same month last year. 

Honda is trailing behind with a sizeable gap. The Japanese brand sold 5,26,865 units last month, which is still a healthy 10 percent growth year-on-year. Honda is set to make an even bigger sales jump with the Honda H’Ness CB350 scheduled for the latter half of this month. It will definitely eat into the Royal Enfield Classic 350’s sales pie. 

That said, the iconic Bullet maker is also set to commence its onslaught with new bikes under the J platform, starting with the Meteor 350. If Royal Enfield manages to undercut the Honda Highness CB350, there’s a good chance for it becoming a smash hit. Suzuki too is likely to enhance its two-wheelers’ appeal with the planned introduction of smartphone connectivity. All in all, things look quite good for these two-wheeler manufacturers and the upcoming festive season too seems to be a good opportunity to cover up lost ground in the last few months.