Hero Honda posts highest-ever May sales of 22.5%
Hero Honda Motors Ltd (HHML), the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer, keeps consolidating its market leadership. The company today reported sales of 3,82,678 units in May 2009 - its highest-ever sales for the month of May. This is a 22.5 per cent growth over the corresponding month in 2008, when it had sold 3,12,317 units.
This comes close on the heels of a 30 per cent growth in Hero Honda's April sales, when the company sold 3,70,575 units of two-wheelers. With this, Hero Honda's cumulative sales in the new financial year (April-May, 2009-10) goes up to 7,53,253, a growth of 25.8 per cent over the corresponding period last year when the company sold 5,98,569 units.
Hero Honda has been consistently building on its strong 58 per cent share in the domestic motorcycle market in the country, even as the uncertainty over interest rates and an overall credit squeeze continues to impact the industry adversely.
Mr. Anil Dua, Sr. Vice-President (Marketing, Sales & Customer Care), Hero Honda Motors Ltd said, "The strategic building-blocks that we put in place in the past couple of years have been key to our consistent growth month after month. Consistent product refreshes, aggressive network expansion, exploring new markets, clutter-breaking communication and ground activation have been the hallmark of this strategy. We have also built an extensive network of over 3500 touch-points across the country, which will be taken up to 4000 by the end of this year.
"Going forward, we will therefore also keep up our relentless effort to reach out to customers spread across the semi-urban and upcountry markets," he added.
Most of the new launches such as the Passion Pro, Splendor NXG self-start, the special edition Hunk, the new Pleasure, in addition to the trusted Splendor + and Passion Plus, have been share-and-volume drivers for the company.
Hunk and CBZ X-treme continue to help build on Hero Honda's steadily growing share in the premium segment. Hero Honda was given the "Trusted Brand" (Motorcycles) Award 2009 by Reader's Digest magazine in the month of May.
[Via: infibeam]
TVS Motor May sales up 5%
TVS Motor Company has posted 5% growth in May 2009, registering total two wheeler sales of 118,574 units against 112,770 units in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The company's domestic motorcycle sales for the month of May 2009 registered a growth of 3% over the same period of the previous year with total motorcycle sales registering 53,495 units in May 2009 when compared to 54,717 units recorded in May 2008. Scooters sales stood at 22,486 units in May 2009 when compared to 22,931 units recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The ongoing economic slowdown in some countries continued to affect the company's exports which registered sales of 11,135 units of two wheelers in May 2009 as against 14,071 units in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company however, witnessed a growth of 10% in exports over the previous month.
The company is all set to strengthen its premium segment with the launch of the Apache RTR 180, scheduled for the current month. The motorcycle's sporty design, outstanding ride dynamics and technology promises to make it a preferred choice for high performance seekers.
The Apache RTR 180 has already been given rave reviews by auto experts, rating it as a strong, performance driven, zippy bike with excellent stability and handling that makes it a potent contender in the competitive and rapidly evolving Indian performance bike arena.
[Via: infibeam]
Bajaj, Renault may go separate ways on the ULC car project
The proposed Bajaj-Renault partnership for an ultra low cost (ULC) car could be headed for trouble already. The two companies have 'issues' with the car's design, technical specification, branding and positioning.
Last year, Bajaj and Renault had signed an MoU for the ULC car project, but the actual joint venture agreement has not been signed yet. According to reports in the media, both Bajaj and Renault still want to work together on the small car, but their aims and objectives are turning out to be dissimilar, which may put the whole project in jeopardy.
Bajaj, which currently has no cachet in the passenger cars space, is looking to develop a vehicle which other carmakers may find difficult (or even impossible?) to profitably replicate. In addition to low cost, the Pune-based two-wheeler manufacturer wants to focus on fuel-efficiency for its first car.
Renault, meanwhile, wants to go after the Tata Nano, no holds barred. It wants to develop a car that can take on the Nano in terms of pricing and value-for-money. The French company is confident that for Nano money, it can actually offer a car that's better engineered, safer, more stylish and more refined than the Tata product. While Bajaj believes that a Nano replica - even one that's slightly better than the original - may not work, Renault is quite gung-ho about it and wants to launch its own version of the Nano as soon as possible.
Apart from tech specs and positioning, the other major issue is that of branding. Bajaj is keen to keep the upper hand here, since the ULC car will be its first foray into the passenger cars segment. The company wants the new car to be seen as a Bajaj product, and does not want the Renault badge to overwhelm the Bajaj name.
While both Bajaj and Renault remain committed to resolving their issues over the next few weeks, their ULC car may well be delayed by 6-12 months if Bajaj insists on reengineering the package completely. There also seems to be a small chance that the alliance may not take off at all, in which case Bajaj will go on to develop the small car on its own, perhaps with technical inputs from KTM. Either way, it should be interesting to see how this story finally pans out.
[Via: indiaautomotive]
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