Scooter Sales Rise By 39 Per Cent Year-On-Year : BikeAdvice |  |
- Scooter Sales Rise By 39 Per Cent Year-On-Year
- Vespa to be Positioned as an ‘Iconic’ Brand
- Suzuki Access 125 Vs. Honda Activa
| Scooter Sales Rise By 39 Per Cent Year-On-Year Posted: 18 Dec 2011 08:13 AM PST
Original Source: Scooter Sales Rise By 39 Per Cent Year-On-Year from BikeAdvice.in We've been observing in the recent past that the sales figure of scooters in India is only seeing a northward trend and is not used to the habit of seeing a dip. That's a good piece of news for the two wheeler makers in India. Drastic increase of traffic in Indian cities and even the tier -2 towns on an everyday basis combines with a rise of female riders in the country are the rime reasons for the increasing scooters in India. A considerable number of bike customers are also shifting towards the scooters.
Honda, Suzuki, HMC Mahindra 2 Wheelers and TVS are the present players in this segment with the first two companies dominating a major share in this market. Yamaha is also gearing up in full swing to foray into Indian with a India specific scooter. Scooter sales grew up by 39 per cent year – on – year in the month of November which is the 22 – month high. The growth in the motorcycles segment was only23 per cent for the same period. The problem, the present day scooter manufacturing company's face is the fact that they are unable to meet the demand created in the market. “We cannot cope with the demand with our single scooter offering, Access 125. So we plan to come out with a second model, which will be launched during the upcoming Auto Expo,” said Atul Gupta, VP (Marketing & Sales), Suzuki Motorcycles India. Mr. Gupta added that Suzuki has a present booking backlog of around 30,000 scooters, even after a 30% expansion in monthly production to 27,000 units, Gupta added. In the month of November, two – wheeler makers sold 229,309 scooters and 869,000 motorcycles. The Indian automotive industry body which is Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) says that growth in the scooter segment would soon overtake the demand for other products in the two – wheeler segment by this fiscal year itself. “Scooters still remain an untapped market in India. We expected the scooter segment to grow to 35% by 2016, when the Indian two – wheeler market is expected to double to 20 million units,” said India Yamaha Motor CEO & MD Hiroyuki Suzuki. The recently growing high demand for the scooters is putting both the manufacturers and the customers in a spin. While, manufacturers are forced to think on the expansion plans, whereas the customers are forced to wait for a long time to get their scooters delivered by the companies. Doubling up the production capacity also proves to be of no use. “Even after doubling our production to 1.1 lakh units a month, the demand gap continues to grow. The waiting period for our flagship Activa is a couple of months and we expect to cater to the Indian demand as we ramp up production at our second plant coming up in Rajasthan next year,” said NK Rattan, vice-president at Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI). According to a recent news article in Economic Times, 'The demand in the segment is being partly driven by women and tier II cities where infrastructure has improved over the past few years. Tier II cities now account for about 20% of overall scooter sales, against 15% last year. The changing socio-economic environment in the country has also helped push up sales among women, who now form a larger part of the working population.' Researches reveal the fact that women riders constitute to around 12 to 14 per cent of the 10 Mn two – wheeler users in the country. When it comes to new buyers, the per cent goes up to a whooping figure of around 30 to 35 per cent. “The growth in the scooter segment is being fuelled by socio-economic factors including the rise in the number of working women, spread of smaller and satellite towns, and the overall economic growth in the country that is expected to sustain for the next few years,” said Anil Dua, Hero MotoCorp senior VP, Marketing & Sales. Regards, Related posts: |
| Vespa to be Positioned as an ‘Iconic’ Brand Posted: 18 Dec 2011 02:53 AM PST
Original Source: Vespa to be Positioned as an 'Iconic' Brand from BikeAdvice.in 'Vespa', the Italian brand of scooters are a name than many Indian household can never even forget and remove from their mind. While it was a dream for many to own one at that point of time, the high demand coupled that a slightly higher price badge made it a dream which never came true for many Indian gentlemen.
Piaggio is planning to position the Vespa in the Indian market as a 'lifestyle, iconic, timeless and ageless product'. The first Vespa for the market will house a 125 cc engine and will foray into our market by the month of April next year. Positioning the products as an iconinc brand, the company is trying to create an exclusive premium segment in the Indian scooter segment. In a media presentation in Milan, Mr Ravi Chopra, Chairman & Managing Director of Piaggio India, said it was important for the company to sustain Vespa’s brand image through an appropriate positioning and communication strategy. The key was to focus on its 'heritage and unique values’. For sure, Vespa has a certain heritage value added to it. Piaggio has a commercial vehicles' manufacturing base which is functioning in Baramati in the state of Maharashtra. The company has plans an initial production of 1.5 lakh units annually which includes export figures too. The 'Vespa' brand is mainly targeted at the customers of 35 top Indian cities through an exclusive dealer network. Taking this forward, Mr Chopra said in his presentation that Piaggio would need to expand the scooter range while identifying customised products for India. Piaggio will have to consider Honda and Suzuki as the main competitor for the gearless scooter segment. The Activa and Access are the segment leaders with the former model taking the lead in India. However, the players cannot be ignored on the first shot. The other players, in the sense includes Hero MotoCorp with its Pleasure range of scooters targeted at the women segment and the TVS, with its Scooty range and the Wego, which is the latest from the maker. Mahindra and Mahindra has maximum range of gearless scooters which is strengthening up its position in the Indian market. Note that Yamaha is also gearing up in a fast manner, really fast. Even though motorcycles account for a lion’s share of India’s two-wheeler production (estimated to close at 15 million units this fiscal), scooters have been growing briskly at over 20 per cent. This simply proves the potential of scooter segment in the sub – continent. The ease of riding in earless scooters, especially within the city limit with heavy traffic signifies the need for these gearless scooters in India at a rapid pace. Lack of public transport facilities adds up to the existing woos in the market. All such difficulties pave way for the need of gearless scooters. Piaggio has the biggest advantage of Vespa's decades – long association with the country as an obvious recall advantage which could help it get off to a quick start. However, the company will have to understand the fact that today’s customers are a lot younger than what the company saw decades back and that they are more familiar with our native brands and Japanese brands in the when it comes to the two – wheeler segment. The previous entry of Vespa was not dealt directly by Piaggio, but by Lohia Motors Limited (LML). The alliance between these two players ended in the late 90s due to a steep decrease in the demand of Vespa range of scooters. It has to be mentioned here that Scooters are going to be the critical component of Piaggio’s strategy for the Asia – Pacific region where the demand is considerably huge compared with other markets. The company plans to foray into eight new markets in a time span of less than three years. While Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan are already part of the future roadmap, Cambodia and the Philippines will join the list by the year 2014. Production of bikes in Asia-Pacific is expected to be in the range of 19 Mn units over the next three years from the present production level of 16.5 Mn units. This accounts for an additional production of another 2.5 Mn units. Vietnam is expected to be the key hub for Piaggio which means components will be shipped out from here to other parts of the region where it will mark its presence in the near future. Now, considering all the existing products in this segment and the present market scenario, will the Vespa's re – entry be strategically important for the company? The best way to judge this is to 'Wait and Watch'. Get yourself involved in the topic. Leave your thoughts, in the form of words below. Regards, Related posts: |
| Suzuki Access 125 Vs. Honda Activa Posted: 17 Dec 2011 09:56 PM PST
Original Source: Suzuki Access 125 Vs. Honda Activa from BikeAdvice.in Honda Activa and Suzuki Access are the two premium scooters in the Indian market which has the maximum demand. Since these two scooters are from the same country – Japan; and since both the companies have their own reputation, it is often hard to decide which bike to buy.
In this post I will try to help you choose the best. And the best judge are our readers! So in to following poll, please vote for the the scooter you prefer. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Both these scooters have a 4 stroke single cylinder air cooled engine. Access has a 124cc engine while Honda Activa has only a 109cc engine. But both these engines are extremely refined and serve the purpose. From a research we conducted, the most commonly reported mileage of Activa is 40kmpl with extremities ranging from 35kmpl to 45kmpl. The mileage of Suzuki Access is a little bit less with the average being 37.5kmpl and extremities ranging from 33kmpl to 43 kmpl. Ownership Reviews: Also leave a comment explaining why you chose one scooter over the other. Regards, Related posts: |
Now, as many of you know Vespa is all set to re – enter the Indian soil. Many people are really excited hearing this piece of news, which we reported a couple of months back or so. The fourth largest manufacturer of scooters and motorcycles in the entire globe, Piaggio produces a little more than 600,000 vehicles annually, with five research and development centres, more than 6,700 employees and operations in around 50 nations across the globe.
| You are subscribed to email updates from BikeAdvice.in To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment