Just a week after Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj said that the two-wheeler sales remain low, market leader Hero MotoCorp posted record sales in the month of October.
Indian multinational two-wheeler company Hero MotoCorp Ltd witnessed the highest-ever sales in a single month in October 2020 after the company sold over 8 lakh motorcycles and scooters in this month alone. As per a statement issued by the company, Hero MotoCorp recorded a growth of 35 per cent as compared to the corresponding month of last years. In October 2019, the company had sold 599,248 units while this month 806,848 units were sold by the company.
Hero motocorp sells 8 lakh vehicles in Oct. Just when Bajaj was saying demand isn’t that much. pic.twitter.com/0BnUq2VpMt
— Deepak Shenoy (@deepakshenoy) November 1, 2020
In this, the sale of Motorcycles was 7,32,498, while 74,340 scooters were sold by the company in the month. The company exported around 15,000 units, while the rest 7.91 lakh units were sold in the country. The company’s sale in the previous month was 7,15,718, which means it achieved a growth of 12.73% in a single month. Hero MotoCorp remains mainly a motorcycle manufacturer, as above 90% of the total two-wheeler sale came from motorcycles, while scooters accounted for just above 9%.
It may be noted that the numbers released by Hero reflect dealer dispatches, they are not retail sales. But dealers place orders based on retail demand, therefore the numbers are indicative of retail demand.
This impressive performance by Hero contradicts the claims made by Managing Director of rival company Bajaj Auto, Rajiv Bajaj with respect to the sales of two-wheelers. He had said that he was not upbeat about demand coming back during the rest of the fiscal year. Ther had blamed new regulations such as ABS, BS 6 etc for the slowdown in the sector, and had also blamed the policies of the government.
Calling the lockdown placed by the government due to deadly coronavirus pandemic as “draconian lockdown”, Bajaj had said that he was not hopeful about the demands increasing during the rest of the fiscal year because they were hit by the lockdown.
Supporting the report of Federation of Auto Dealers Association (FADA) that had predicted that the demand for two-wheelers would be lower than the last year during the festive season, Bajaj had said that sales for Baja Auto’s 100 cc motorcycles were lower by 30 per cent while sales of premium motorcycles experienced growth. He added that sales of three-wheelers were recorded at 40 per cent of the last year.
While October sale figures for Bajaj is not available yet, the company had sold 4,04,851 units of two-wheelers in September, with highest-ever export of 1,85,351 units. The company’s September 2020 sale was 20% more than September 2019 sales. This means, it is wrong to say that Bajaj two-wheeler sale is adversely impacted by the lockdown now, as the company improved its sale in the last month.
After the October sale figures of Hero MotoCorp was released, journalists working in the financial sector and social media users slammed Rajiv Bajaj for panting dismal picture for the sector, which had led to the fall in the share prices of the two-wheeler manufacturing companies.
Bajaj’s India Bashing
Last month, Bajaj had decided to stop funding the news channels that he thought were “toxic news channels” saying that he did not want his children to inherit an India built on hate. He said that their brand had never been associated with anything that they felt was a source of toxicity in the society.
