Hero Maestro is the second highest selling scooter in March 2015

The Automatic scooter industry has been growing at an average of over 20% over last two years. The industry size, currently, is just under 400,000 scooters per month. Scooters have turned out to be the growth drivers for the two wheeler industry, while motorcycles sales have been on the decline. In fact, growth in scooter volumes has outpaced that of the industry by a healthy margin. Of course, this is also due to the increased number of new launches lately, thereby creating a wider choice for customers, in this segment.

The strong growth by the scooter segment has encouraged several Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to line up new models and/or refreshed variants for launch while also planning capacity expansions in the segment to cater to the increased demand.

Market Share (scooters)

In terms of sales volumes, Honda leads the way by a humungous margin with 60% market share. While Honda enjoys the first mover advantage in this segment of automatic scooters, it has done well not only to sustain its leadership, but keep competition at bay, with periodic new model launches and product interventions. Honda Activa is a household name across the country and it will be interesting to see how Honda goes about in future, to retain its leadership, while other international as well as brands get aggressive with their product portfolio and sales network.

Next to Honda are the homegrown brands Hero and TVS with 15% and 13% market share, respectively. While TVS too has been in this segment for long, Hero benefits from its vast dealer network and brand value. Suzuki and Yamaha have been gaining acceptance but have a long way to go to challenge the other three. Mahindra have been making steady progress, mainly after the launch of the Gusto. Piaggio has clearly positioned itself as a premium brand, however, they need to do a lot of work to come into the reckoning.

Activa happens to be the largest selling scooter, followed by Maestro and Wego/Jupiter. Not much of a difference between the rest of the models. In terms of growth over March 2014, Honda again has had a colossal gain with the Dio, whose numbers have been consistently growing over last year. This is again followed by the Aviator and Activa from Honda itself.

Top five gains

The ones who did not make the best of the growing scooter industry , clearly missed the bus. Mahindra Rodeo sales fell by 56%, but that is mainly due to the cannibalization by its own sibling, Gusto, while the Scooty Pep has been giving way to Scooty Zest. However, there is a reason to worry for Suzuki, as their numbers have been inconsistent for the Access and Swish. Yamaha too has been facing dwindling sales of Alpha.

Top five losses