Scooters have clearly bucked the ongoing slowdown in the India automobile industry. As against a 14.42% dip in the overall automobile sales, at 8,65,404 units, in October, the biggest in almost eight years, sales of scooters went up by 4.4% to 1,03,101 units. Scooters saw a high degree of cash purchases last month.
?At a time when finance has become a big issue, with high interest rates and unavailability of funds, products like scooters are doing well. A majority of them are purchased on cash. Hence, the demand for scooters have remained intact,? says an industry expert. According to him, October have been particularly well as all major festivals, including Diwali, were in the month. Scooters with a lower price tag had emerged favourites of the season.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the segment between 75cc and 125cc, which includes Hero Honda Pleasure, Suzuki Access, Honda Aviator and TVS Scooty, saw a growth of 8.57% at 98,113 units vis-?-vis 90,366 units in the same month last year.
In contrast, the segments with vehicles below 75cc and above 125cc have registered a drop in sales in October. While sales of lower-end scooters have almost reduced to a half at 1,504 units, against 3,566 units in October last year, the tope-end scooters posted a dip of 27.7% at 3,484 units compared to 4,820 units a year ago.
?The sales of motorcycles dipped as the rate of rejection had gone up substantially in the segment. But scooters managed to maintain the growth momentum, since less than 5% of the total purchase happen on credit,? adds a Mumbai-based analyst.
Sales of motorcycles were down by 18.17% at 5,38,353 units against 6,57,874 units a year ago, bringing down the overall two-wheeler industry sales by 14.5% at 7,78,245 units compared to 7,93,420 units in October last year.