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June 25, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report June 25, 2001 |
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In top gear: Scooter sales zip 67 per cent in last 5 monthsBhupesh Bhandari The scooter has made a comeback, after being elbowed off the Indian roads for some time by zipping motorcycles. Monthly scooter sales, having hit a seven-year low in December 2000, showed a smart rally in the next five months. Between December 2000 and May 2001, scooter manufacturers recorded a 67 per cent growth in monthly sales, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The five Indian scooter companies-Bajaj Auto, Maharashtra Scooters, Kinetic Motor Company, LML of the Singhanias and TVS Suzuki-recorded sales (inclusive of exports) at 86,149 scooters in May 2001 as against 51,474 in December 2000. Monthly scooter sales had fallen by 58.15 per cent in the 12 months preceding December 2000. The scooter companies are offering different explanations for the rise in sales. Bajaj Auto vice-president (business development and marketing) RL Ravichandran said that the company has seen a rise in sales because of the value for money models it has introduced. Recently, the company came out with stripped-down versions of its Chetak and Super scooters, which were priced 15-20 per cent below the existing models. The gamble seems to have paid off. Bajaj's scooter sales have moved up from some 30,000 per month to over 47,500 units with the new models accounting for almost 65 per cent of the volumes. Looking into the future, Ravichandran says that Bajaj is aiming at stabilising scooter sales at 50,000 per month. "Then it becomes a very profitable business," he adds. Bajaj has realised that nothing sells amongst cost-conscious Indian buyers better than fuel-efficient vehicles. So, it has developed fuel-efficient 4-stroke versions of Chetak and Legend NXT. At over 60 km to a litre, their fuel efficiency will be 30 per cent higher than all existing scooters. Priced aggressively, Ravichandran expects the two models to help raise scooter volumes by almost 25 per cent. Like Bajaj, LML too has come out with a value for money model called Prithvi. However, LML senior vice president RD Jayal said that the rise in sales is not only due to this but due to a general upswing in public sentiment regarding scooters. "People are viewing the scooter differently now. And with Honda also launching scooters, people have come to realise that there is still a lot of resilience in the product," he said. Industry experts say scooter sales are expected to go up in the remaining part of the year as companies have lined up a series of new products. "The industry is moving towards fuel efficient, aesthetic models. You ain't seen nothing yet," says a Bombay-based auto analyst. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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