Home BusinessBajaj Auto: Yesterday no Bajaj Auto: Yesterday no Sayantani Kar / Mumbai December 22, 2009, 0:12 IST
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Industry experts say there are two reasons for the resurgence in scooter sales: One, the fuel-efficiency of scooters has improved significantly in the last few years; and two, maintenance on scooters is low because these are driven largely by women. Over a million scooters were sold in India in 2008-09. And the projections are that the numbers could double in the next five to six years. It has attracted the likes of Honda, TVS, Suzuki, Hero Honda and now Mahindra & Mahindra. Even Yamaha, it is learnt, wants to join the bandwagon.
Bajaj had become a small and insignificant player in this market. In the eight-month period between April and November 2009, it sold just 3,356 Kristal scooters. Overall scooter sales, in fact, rose 15 per cent to 891,303 in this period. In November, in fact, only 154 Kristal scooters were sold and a little over 100 were exported. Honda has a dominant 55 per cent market share, followed by TVS Motors with 19 per cent and Hero Honda with 14.5 per cent.
But none of this seems to have bothered Bajaj Auto. The company wants to triple its motorcycle volumes from the current three million, capture a larger share of the global motorcycle pie (30 million per year now) and become the world’s largest motorcycle maker. That will involve taking on Hero Honda. The decision to get out of scooters is ground preparation for the final assault.