Hero MotoCorp giving tough competition to Honda in scooter sales

Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) ex-partners and now rivals are fighting to gain the maximum market share and sales in India. While Honda is trying to gain numbers in the motorcycles segment, Hero is taking efforts to make inroads in the scooters segment which is predominantly Honda’s territory.

As per SIAM data, Hero MotoCorp’s scooter market share increased to 20.6 per cent in the December quarter from 15.9 per cent in the June quarter. HMSI scooter sales slipped by eight per cent to 44.9 per cent in the same period.

"After five years of having only the Pleasure in our (scooter) portfolio, we launched the Maestro last year. Since then, our volumes have nearly doubled to 55,000 units per month from 30,000 units earlier.We are limited by capacity and are now working on increasing production to 60,000 scooters every month from the 40,000 units we produced a year earlier." said Anil Dua, SVP, (sales and marketing) Hero MotoCorp.

HMSI has been working closely with their engineers are their new technical center at their Manesar plant. The company will be launching the CB150R Streetfigher on March 11 and plans to introduce a new motorcycle every quarter.

Source: BusinessStandard