Gearing Up For A Long Ride

There is a sense of a new dawn at Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI), the wholly owned two-wheeler subsidiary of the $92-billion Honda Motor Company, after the latter’s separation from the Munjal family-promoted Hero group. “The challenge has become bigger,” says Shinji Aoyama, president and CEO of HMSI. “We need to hurry up to change our product portfolio. We aim to be No. 1, but it will take time, maybe a decade.” Aoyama is not being modest, just practical.

Having severed the umbilical cord with Hero — Honda will continue to support Hero with technology for new bikes and spare parts for existing bikes up to 2014 — HMSI is now free to plan its future independently. But turning No. 1 bike-maker is easier said than done. Experts are divided in their opinion. “Honda will command respect, but it will be very difficult for it to be No. 1 in India on its own,” says automotive expert Tutu Dhawan. Angel Broking, on the other hand, is bullish: “We expect the domestic two-wheeler segment to record a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12 per cent during FY2012E. However, we expect HMSI to increase its market share going ahead at the expense of Hero Honda, Bajaj and TVS.”

For now, the picture HMSI paints for its path ahead seems more tactical than strategic. Next fiscal, the company — No. 3 in motorcycles and No. 1 in scooters — will only launch one new scooter and a 250-cc bike. It will focus squarely on meeting the huge demand for scooters; there are waiting periods stretching from two months to eight months for products such Activa, which it plans to address with the imminent launch of its new, 600,000-unit plant in Rajasthan. It will launch commuter bikes — low-frills, conservative bikes of 100-cc displacement, which make up the bulk of the market — later.

The More, The Better
Overall, HMSI has four motorcycles in India — the 110-cc CB Twister, 125-cc Shine and Stunner, and the 150-cc Unicorn (not counting the high-end 1,000-cc-plus bikes like CB1000R, CB1000RR and VFR1200F). Including variants, HMSI has 11 motorcycles. Hero Honda has eight bike brands (a total of 14 including variants). Bajaj Auto has four motorcycles and 11 variants. However, HMSI doesn’t have a single commuter motorcycle, a segment Aoyama calls “the centre of Indian customer demand”.

Motorcycles comprise three-fourths of the 10-million unit two-wheeler market in India, of which commuter bikes comprise 72 per cent. More than 70 per cent of this segment is owned by Hero Honda, through models such as Splendor, Passion and CD-Dawn (Splendor sells more than a million a year). The No. 2 player in this segment, Bajaj Auto, has 27 per cent share, with Discover 100-cc selling more than 800,000 units annually. Another strong player is TVS Motors, which has 7.5 per cent market share in the segment, with three bikes — the 100-cc Star City and Sport, and the 110-cc Jive.

HMSI has only one product in this segment, the Twister, which sells about 160,000 a year. Aoyama is satisfied with this number, and says Twister is “too stylish for normal people to accept, and not designed for the mass segment. We will bring in no-frills, conservative 100-cc bikes to India”. He adds that bikes like Twister will see more takers in future, but the core of the market will remain in the conservative bikes.

2011 Honda CBR250R Booking in Full Speed

In a telling sign of the Indian motorcycle market maturing rapidly to accept larger capacity, sporty motorcycles, the 2011 Honda CBR250R has garnered 1,800 bookings reflecting tremendous enthusiasm for the premium Honda motorcycle among the Indian performance motorcycle community. The sportily styled 2011 Honda CBR250R closely resembling the larger sibling the Honda VFR1200F features a class leading 250cc four stroke engine with four valves per cylinder driven by a DOHC valvetrain and produces about 25 Bhp of power. Electric Bike

This motorcycle is good for a top speed close to 160 kph and also comes with a costlier ABS variant. To put things into perspective, the Kawasaki Ninja, which costs double that of the Honda CBR250R could muster close to 1,000 units after being on sale for a full one year. On the other hand, the 1.5 Lakh Rupee CBR250R by managing to surpass the Ninja’s yearly sale in under one month only underscores the huge market that exists for good motorcycles under the INR 2 Lakh mark, which in other words is the new 1 lakh mental barrier that people previously used to have when they went motorcycle shopping. Used Cars Delhi

Honda Motorcycle Global Sales Report

Honda released its overall 2010 sales numbers this week, showing a 16.2 percent increase in global sales, but an 8.6 percent drop in North American sales.for sale cars

Globally, Honda sold 17.9 million motorcycles in 2010, compared to 15 million in 2009. In North America, 192,000 bikes were sold in 2010, compared to 210,000 in 2009.Maruti dealers in india

Besides North America, sales have also descended in Europe and China. In Europe, sales were down 1.2 percent (258,000 motorcycles sold 2010; 261,000 sold 2009). In China, sales were done 1.6 percent (1.2 million motorcycles sold 2010; 1.3 million sold 2009).

But there's a different trend in Asia and Oceania, where smaller displacement motorcycles are mostly sold.Mahindra First Choice Honda broke records there; sales were up 18.7 percent, with 14.3 million motorcycles sold in 2010 compared to 11.7 million sold in 2009.

Vespa Back To India

The Italian company is looking to make inroads into the fast-growing scooter market that is currently dominated by Honda and TVS. And Piaggio has big plans for the market.

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After launching the 125cc Vespa LX125 next year, Piaggio plans to bring in a fuller range that would include more scooters from the Vespa range apart from motorcycles from its other brands.

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Piaggio, which has seven brands of scooters, motorcycles and small commercial vehicles, started its fresh two-wheeler campaign on Thursday with the launch of its premium Aprilia range of superbikes that would come in as imports and carry hefty price tags ranging between Rs 13 lakh and Rs 18 lakh. "Aprilia will give Piaggio the visibility and branding in the two-wheeler market and help us showcase our technological advancement," Ravi Chopra, CMD of Piaggio Vehicles India, told TOI.

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"Aprilia will be a niche product and we plan to sell the bikes through dealerships in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai," he added. Aprilia, a brand bought by Piaggio in 2004, was earlier slated to come to India in partnership with the Munjals of the Hero Group.

Booking Open For Honda CBR250r

The bookings are now open for Honda CBR250R (from HMSI) at Rs1.5 lakh price for the base version and Rs1.8 lakh for ABS version, said the company. The vehicle will be of Indian made and will be ready for delivery in April. According to Honda, the vehicle was showcased in Thailand months ago and is expected to batter the Indian market with its design and performance. With this launch there will be a new platform in the motorcycle segment meeting the demands of the customers who need creative features. The bike will be designed to be friendly and flair to ride and Honda will be making it in India and Thailand to export to more than 20 countries.

Honda bike plant in Rajasthan

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Honda Motorcyle and Scooter India (HMSI) will invest Rs 500 crore (USD 110 million) to build a new plant in the Indian state of Rajasthan, a company executive said.

The new plant will have annual capacity of 600,000 scooters and motorcycles that will take HMSI's total capacity to 2.2 million, said Naresh Kumar Rattan, general manager of HMSI and operating head of sales and marketing.

Honda plans new USD 110 m two-wheeler plant in India

HMSI is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co.

HMSI's current facility in Haryana state has peak capacity of 1.6 million scooters and motorcyles, and is close to operating at full capacity.

HMSI will also launch at least six new motorcycles in the Indian market in 2011, the first of which -- the CBR 250R -- will be introduced in April, Rattan told reporters on the sidelines of an event late on Wednesday.

Media reports have said India's Hero group and Honda Motor would soon terminate their joint venture Hero Honda Motors, the Indian market leader in motorcycles, through the sale of Honda's 26% stake to its Indian partner.

Hero Honda price raise for all bikes

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Hero Honda has increased the prices in India in the range of Rs. 500 – Rs. 1500 depending upon its various models in the domestic market. It stated that there has been a considerable increase in input costs constantly and the rise in prices is to partially off-set those costs.

"We have always taken a long-term view on pricing, given its strategic nature. Hence we had consciously held back price increase on most of our products despite the rising input costs and hardening commodity prices," said the company spokesperson. The lowest increase has been made on models in the entry-level segment such as the Splendor, while premium models--the Karizma and the ZMR--saw the highest increase, the executive said. Hero Honda is a joint venture between New Delhi-based Hero Group and Japan's Honda Motor Co.

Meanwhile, the Hero Honda JV split has taken a new turn where the investors have expressed their protest for such a move. The companies agreed upon selling the shares at a cost lesser than the current market price. Hence the investors fear that they may be deeply affected because of this which may thus lead to an increase the royalty amount.