Honda Motorcycle predicts 50% sales dip
India's leading gear-less scooter maker Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) is struggling with labour problem at its Manesar plant in Haryana and the firm predicts that this will cause the production to slide roughly by 50% this month.
HMSI had been producing over a lakh motorcycles and scooters earlier but now it feel that it will barely reach the 50,000 unit mark in October and the downward descend may continue in the coming months if a solution is not found for the labour issue. Honda's other Indian arm - Hero Honda has been dominating the market and registered over four lakh unit of two-wheeler sales in September and hopes to maintain the positive growth.
The over-all two-wheeler sales in India is robust due to the festive season and attractive loan offers and is expected to cross the 9 lakh unit mark in the month of September 2009. However, HMSI due to its labour issue is losing out on this opportunity.
The Manesar region is facing severe labour problems at other plants located in the area. Thankfully , the Honda plant has not witnessed any violent protests but the pace of production has been reduced as the workers seek higher wages. This will further increase the waiting period for the firm's flagship scooter - Activa.
[Via: BIKE]
New Power Scooters From Mahindra
Mahindra is on a roll, chalking out new strategies and identifying new avenues for the two-wheeler market. The company has kicked off their aggressive expansion plans in India with the launch of two new power scooters - Rodeo & Duro - which will compete with the likes of recently launched New Honda Activa, Honda Aviator, TVS Scooty Streak, Suzuki Access & Hero Honda Pleasure. Rodeo is priced at Rs. 41,300 & Duro is available for Rs. 38,300 (ex-showroom Pune).
Mahindra Rodeo is the perfect choice for the young urban male, the it is a high performance, feature-packed scooter with a distinctly macho demeanour. Rodeo's robust 125 cc engine offers 8.0 bhp of power, making it one of the most powerful vehicles in its class. Excellent pick-up and smooth acceleration ensures agility even in dense traffic and low maintenance costs.
Mahindra Duro with its stylish good looks and powerful 125 cc engine not only caters to the transportation needs of the entire family but is also the best value for money product in its category as it provides the customer with the highest value per unit of engine cc.
With this launch, Mahindra Two Wheelers now has three products as part of its scooter portfolio - the Mahindra Rodeo, the Mahindra Duro and the Mahindra Flyte that was introduced earlier.
Bajaj Auto Plans Africa & Europe Entry
Bajaj Auto is exploring markets in Africa and Europe for its motorcycles, particularly the Boxer, CT100 and the Pulsar. The company, which exported more than 6 lakh motorcycles, is seeing rising sales of the low cost Boxer and CT100. Bajaj is taking a step ahead in registering the Pulsar brand name in countries before it begins marketing the motorcycle.
"We have had instances in the past where companies had registered the Pulsar brand in their names when they realised we were coming. So, we are selling the bike under the Pulse brand in Iran and as the Rouser in the Philippines," Ashok Saxena, general manager of Bajaj Auto's international business said.
[Via: motorbeam]
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