The world’s largest two-wheeler market is going through its roughest patch ever. The COVID-19 outbreak has dealt a heavy blow to the Indian two-wheeler market. Incomes are impacted due to the lockdown, leading to many in the middle-class losing jobs or having to undergo major pay cuts.
Domestic sales continued its downward slide in April 2021, largely because of dampened demand for entry-level motorcycles.
The overall two-wheeler segment fell by -33.52% in April 2021 on a month-on-month basis to 995,097 units, compared to 1,496,806 in March 2021.
Read Also: Entry-Level Segment Pulls Down Overall Two-Wheeler Sales In FY21
Top selling products like the Hero Splendour, which used to sell 2.5 lakh units monthly on average, could only record sales of 193,508 units in April 2021. Despite the hit, Hero Splendour was the highest selling two-wheeler in the list of Top 10 two-wheelers sold in India last month.
Similarly, the second-highest selling two-wheeler – Honda Activa sold only 109,678 units in April 2021. This was a massive decline of 68% from its peak of 333,878 units sold in April 2018.
| Rank | Model | Number of Units Sold |
| 1 | Hero Splendour | 193,508 |
| 2 | Honda Activa | 109,678 |
| 3 | Honda CB Shine | 79,416 |
| 4 | Hero HF Deluxe | 71,294 |
| 5 | Bajaj Pulsar | 66,586 |
| 6 | Suzuki Access | 53,285 |
| 7 | Bajaj Platina | 35,467 |
| 8 | TVS Apache | 29,458 |
| 9 | TVS XL | 25,977 |
| 10 | TVS Jupiter | 25,570 |
Source: Industry Data
The third and fourth positions in the list were claimed by two motorcycles, Honda’s CB Shine and the Hero HF Deluxe. While the CB Shine clocked 79,416 units, Hero reported a wholesale of 71,294 HF Deluxe units in April 2021.
Looking at products from the performance segment, Bajaj Pulsar stood at the fifth position with 66,568 units and TVS Apache stood at the eighth position with 29,458 units. In fact, the bottom three positions in the Top 10 list were all from the TVS stable, with the XL and Jupiter claiming the ninth and tenth positions respectively.
Industry experts tracking the segment say the urban two-wheeler demand has been largely impacted due to income loss and weak consumer sentiment due to the pandemic. However, better rural income aided the growth of motorcycles, which is also in danger considering the virus is spreading to those areas fast.