Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) has reported domestic sales of 325,448 two-wheelers in November 2016, which is flat growth of 0.31 percent YoY (November 2015: 326,446). Compared to October 2016’s domestic sales of 470,358 units, November numbers are a 44 percent drop.

Commenting on last month’s sales, Y S Guleria, senior vice-president – Sales and Marketing, HHMSI, said: “Compared to festival buying in November last year, this year the industry was prepared for an organic correction in November. However, the demonetisation announcement took everyone with surprise. Two-wheeler sales dropped by 50 percent in the first 3-4 days of the announcement. But the recovery started in the second week and by the end of the month, Honda’s all-India sales returned to almost 80 percent of the normal level with South, West and East leading the recovery."

"Networks right up to rural areas extensively started building Point of Sale infrastructure and promoted online payment gateways, leading to a slight recovery towards end-November 2016. Looking ahead, we remain cautious on the recovery forecast this month as December is traditionally a lean sales month,” added Guleria.