Inarguably, India is among the hottest destinations to sell vehicles, be it two-wheelers or four-wheelers. This is pretty evident from the fact that, at present, the Indian automobile market is flourishing with a number of auto companies and certainly, Honda Two Wheeler is no exception. As such, India's contribution towards the company's fortune is of prime significance; numbers too reflect the same, thereby substantiating the premise. Earlier, the Japanese company made a forecast that it would be able to sell 15.52 million motorcycles and All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) by March 2013. Though, in actual, the company was able to sell a cumulative 15.494 million units, but the shortfall here, is too nominal and also suggests the huge contribution of India towards its growth on back of the fact that the Indian wing of Honda Motor Company grew at a phenomenal 30 per cent pace.
The automobile market is all about sales achieved on a month-on-month, quarterly, half-yearly and annually basis. Incidentally, when parent company of Honda broke up with the Hero Group some three years back, there were simply too many ideologies in the market about the future of this auto company, especially in India. Notably, HMSI contributes to make about 17-18 per cent of Honda Motor's global motorcycle and ATV business. Quite interestingly, out of 1.96 million additional bikes and ATVs that the Japanese company looks forward to sell in this fiscal year, 1.18 million are supposed to be reported from its Indian unit. As such, the company expects to see an impressive growth of 43 per cent that will take its total sales to 3.93 million units. If such a forecast turns into reality, then its share in its parent's volume will rise to whooping 22.58 per cent.
Though, the forecast made by Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India looks quite aggressive, there are varied opinions about such a forecast. While some think it as achievable seeing company's resolve on this front, others appear to be quite sceptical about the same. Seeing that market run as compared to the previous fiscal has not been great for the Indian automobile industry, the forecast seems to be a little impractical for some experts. It must be noted that September, 2013 returned good sales and ended up being an up-tick. Market leader Hero MotoCorp, formerly known as Hero Honda and renamed after the fateful split, posted a rise of 16 per cent as compared to the previous year. However, Honda India's sales have set a new record eventually after crossing 3 lakh units in a month for the first time. This trend can be mainly attributed to the year-ago base effect along with a good monsoon to reflect on the rural market. Also, this impact is likely to carry over to the remaining months of this fiscal. Hence, projection, as made by the company, does seem to be realistic, some industry experts claim.
Sales of HMSI saw a growth of 23.2 per cent to 1.66 million units during the period between April to September months. Furthermore, the auto company already has bookings of around 1.2 lakh units. The growth is certainly impressive and as such, according to some people aware of the development, the company plans to come up with a fourth facility in Gujarat to take up the production capacity to 5 million units by 2015.
Earlier after witnessing the Hero-Honda split, HMSI is now free to undertake a wide-ranging offensive that aims at grabbing more market share. Notably, during the past 34 months, HMSI's market share in India has hopped by about 9 per cent to rise to a cumulative 23 per cent approximately at the end of September 2013. During the course of its journey, Honda India has superseded Bajaj Auto and TVS and now have become the second-largest two-wheeler maker in India in FY13. However, the auto company is still at a fair distance from its biggest competitor Hero. Also, Rajiv Bajaj, who heads Bajaj Auto, reportedly stated that the company's sales are approaching close to that of Honda India.
Overall, growth rate of HMSI is quite impressive. Notably, while market has grown by 16 per cent in the last two years to 13.79 million units, HMSI saw a growth of over 60 per cent to 2.6 million by end of FY13. The scooter market share has gone up to 50 per cent while motorcycle market share has been doubled in the last three year. Currently, the HMSI holds a motorcycle market share of around 15 per cent.
