The joy of festivities isn’t just restrained to just consumers scoring great deals and discounts. Even if there’s a dark cloud over the industry, this festive season, every year, presents itself as a silver lining. This time around, this silver lining has become even more eminently visible in the Indian 2-wheeler market as many major bikemakers have registered their highest ever tally of monthly domestic sales. Piggybacking on 18,11,216 units in October 2023, the industry has achieved a 20.99 percent YoY growth when compared to 14,97,021 units sold in October 2022. However, these numbers only include 6 major bike manufacturers in India:
Leading from the front, like everytime, is Hero Motocorp with sales figures clocking in at 5,59,766 units last month. Compared to last year, it was an YoY growth of 26.41 per cent as Hero Motocorp managed to sell 4,42,825 units in October 2022. The prime reason behind this growth could be the induction of new products in their portfolio including the Xoom gearless scooter, Xtreme 160R 4V and Karizma XMR.
Even Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India managed to run this sprint with a YoY growth of 8.63% as it managed to sell 4,62,747 units last month as compared to 4,25,969 units sold in October 2022. However, that being said, Honda experienced a dip in MoM sales by 5.91 per cent because it sold 4,91,802 units in September 2023.
TVS Motor Company might have secured a third place in overall sales but the growth it experienced was substantial. TVS managed to rake in 25.01 percent YoY and 14.80 percent MoM growth as it sold 3,44,957 units. The major contributions were from the TVS iQube and XL100 moped.
Bajaj Auto also managed to strike a major win last month as it clocked YoY growth of 35.10 per cent by selling 2,78,486 units in October 2023. MoM sales performance was even better with a 37.52 percent improvement over 2,02,510 units sold in September 2023. In a not so surprising manner, it was the Pulsar series that pushed Bajaj to the summit.
Suzuki two-wheelers India also showed substantial growth over last year’s sales during the same time. The Japanese bikemaker sold 84,302 units in October 2023, compared to 69,634 units sold in October 2022, adding to 21.06% YoY growth.
Despite playing in the premium segment, RE has constantly managed to rake in respectable sales figures and last month was no different. Royal Enfield sold 80.958 units as compared to 76,528 units sold last year in October. 5.79% YoY growth might not be that much as compared to what other manufacturers managed to clock but these figures are expected to get better with the launch of the Himalayan 450 being just around the corner.
The same growing trend because of festivities was observed in the electric two-wheeler market as well. However, the cumulative sales in October 2023 stood at 71,604 units as compared to 77,267 units sold in October 2022 registering a reduction of 7% in YoY growth. However, October was the third highest month in 2023 when it comes to sales figures.
Ola Electric has managed to grip its stronghold over the market last month as well by selling 22,565 units. This has managed to make Ola Electric a sharer of astronomical 31 per cent in the market. TVS was another winner in the electric two-wheeler space as it managed to sell 15,729 units but the MoM growth is just 0.93% (September 2023: 15,584 units). Bajaj Auto and Ather Energy held third and fourth places in the sales charts respectively.
