Honda unseats Bajaj as No 2 bike maker, moves closer to Hero

Japanese auto major Honda has unseated Bajaj Auto to become second largest bikes-maker for the time in April, and has also moved within striking distance to overtake Hero as the country's largest twowheeler company.

"Driven by a 34 per cent rise in overall volumes, we have become the No 2 motorcycle-maker in the country in April, unseating the incumbent by a wide margin (over 21,330 units). We sold 1,83,266 bikes in the month, up 22 per cent from 1,50,711 units we had sold a year ago," Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India senior vice-president, sales & marketing, YS Guleria told PTI today.

As against this, Bajaj Auto saw its domestic sales plunge 19 per cent to 1,61,930 units in April. With this, the Japanese twowheeler major leads the Pune-headquartered company by a wide margin of 21,336 units, while it has narrowed the gap it has with the market leader HeromotorCorp to just 12,377 units, making it within a striking distance from the numero uno crown.

The Japanese company began fiscal 2018 on a high note with a 34 per cent spike in sales taking its volumes to a record high of 5,78,929 units, its best-ever monthly sales. As against this HeromotorCorp saw its sales decline by 3.5 per cent to 5,91,306 units in the month.

Even last in fiscal 2017, HMSI lead the market growth selling more than 5 million units, and has closed the year with double-digits growth while the industry managed to remain in the green. HMSI contributed around half the incremental volume in the year.

The April volume jump was led by a massive 40 per cent rise in its flagship scooter Activa which crossed for the first time 3.5 lakh monthly sales at 3,68,618. pti