INDIA SALES: Top 10 Motorcycles in September 2016

September was a positive month for the overall two-wheeler industry which saw surging sales on the back of a good monsoon and upcoming festive season. As motorcycles registered a 16.3 percent YoY increase in sales, Honda Motorcycles & Scooters India (HMSI) emerged as the true-blue winner in the month’s Top 10 list of motorcycles with the CB Shine beating its arch rival Hero MotoCorp’s Glamour in the 125cc segment even as the Dream commuter bike series entered the list after a 3-month hiatus.

The Honda CB Shine beat the Hero Glamour for the fourth spot in last month’s Top 10 with sales of 91,447 units. The Glamour, meanwhile, managed to sell 80,742 units. The last time Honda led Hero in the 125cc segment was in January 2016 when the CB Shine beat the Glamour by a handsome 11,500 units. Since then, Hero’s Glamour had been constantly outgunning HMSI’s CB Shine. The primary reason for HMSI to fall behind Hero is that the CB Shine variants were facing capacity restraints at the company’s Tapukara and Bangalore plants, where the models are currently manufactured. However, HMSI was keen to regain the pole position as the company moved the CB Shine’s production to Bangalore only in July-August.

Meanwhile, Honda’s Dream series (Yuga, Neo, CD 110) has also re-entered the Top 10 charts in September after a 3-month break with sales of 36,693 units helping it to the ninth spot. Apart from the Livo, the Dream is one of the highest selling series in the 110cc commuter bike segment in the country. Due to the surging sales of the Dream series, Royal Enfield’s flagship motorcycle, the Classic 350, has just managed to hold on to the Top 10 list with the TVS Apache, which had featured for the previous two months, falling further behind.

Meanwhile, the podium for September is occupied by the usual suspects – Hero MotoCorp’s Splendor, HF Deluxe and Passion – all of which are a part of the million-unit sales club in the country. Moreover, with the launch of the 150cc Achiever last month and Hero looking to expand its presence in the premium segment, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the New Delhi-based two-wheeler manufacturer has another model in the Top charts in the coming months.

Read more: Top 10 Two-wheelers in September 2016

Pune-based Bajaj Auto was another winner in the reported month thanks to the unlikely hero – Platina – which saw the highest month-on-month jump of 59 percent with sales of 46,287 units. The burgeoning demand for the Platina helped it move up the ladder to the eighth spot. Thus, the mid-table sixth to eighth places were taken up by Bajaj. With the Pulsar’s monthly sales rising by close to 40 percent and the Bajaj CT recording sales of 56,652 units, Bajaj Auto managed to race past the 200,000 unit sales mark in the domestic market – possibly its peak performance for a long time.

Market Share

With the strong performance of the CB Shine, Dream and Platina in September’s Top 10 list, it is no surprise that HMSI and Bajaj Auto have managed to consolidate their market share in the Indian motorcycle segment. For the period from April to September 2016, Honda holds a market share of 14.48 percent, up 0.25 percentage points over April to August. Similarly, Bajaj has also managed to increase its share in the pie by 0.18 percentage points. On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp’s share in the bike segment went down by 0.52 percentage points.

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