After over a year of positive growth, scooters have witnessed a decline in March as sales of major industry players posted a sharp dip. While sales of Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India Ltd (HMSI), the leader in the segment, fell by 6.89% due to production loss at its Manesar plant, sales of TVS Motors declined by 22.16% and that of Bajaj Auto Ltd fell by a robust 77.45%. This has resulted in an overall decline in sales of scooters by 5.07% at 83,022 units in March this year as against 87,459 units during the same month last year.
?Manufacturing of Aviator needed a change in the assembly line and this resulted in loss of production at our plant,? says NK Rattan, vice president, HMSI. The company sold 52,976 units in March as compared to 56,895 units during the same month last year.
?At one end, the economy is slowing down and on the other hand the inflation is spiraling. This has impacted the sales of scooters as people tend to postpone their purchase,? says an official at TVS Motors. Chennai-based TVS Motor sold 15,164 units in March 2008 as against 19,481 units during March last year, a dip of over 22%.
While officials of Bajaj Auto Ltd could not be contacted, industry experts feel that the company?s exceptionally poor performance in the scooter segment is primarily because it is now focusing on its new scooter Blade. The company sold a mere 779 units of Kristal in March as compared to 3,455 units last year.