NEW DELHI: Hero MotoCorp will focus on the premium motorcycle category in new product development and rollout as the company's in-house product development team works on higher-powered bikes.

Pawan Munjal, chairman of the country's biggest two-wheeler company, said that there is a need for Hero to play a more active role in the upper segment of the bike market which is currently dominated by products from companies such as Bajaj Auto BSE 0.12 %, Yamaha and Royal Enfield.

"Hero needs to do a lot more in the premium segment," Munjal said as he launched a new 150cc motorcycle, Achiever, priced at Rs 61,800 (ex-showroom Delhi).

"This is just the beginning of a wide and vast effort in the premium segment ... there is a lot more to come," he said.

The company currently dominates the entry end of the bike market with products such as the Splendor and Passion, but has not been able to make much of a headway in the premium products, which fetch higher profit margins. Its share in the premium segment is in low single-digit percentage point, though the company is now targeting to take this up to double digits.

Apart from the Achiever, Hero's products in the premium category include Xtreme, Hunk (both 150cc), Karizma and ZMR (both 225 cc). However, the products have not been able to crack success with buyers, prompting the company to look at new products as well as upgrades.

Hero has been trying to build-up its strength in product development through the in-house Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur, for which it has hired expats such as Head of Product Planning Malo Le Masson (formerly with premium car brand Infiniti) and Chief Technology Officer Markus Braunsperger (earlier with BMW). 

Munjal has said that development of new products and higher-powered bikes is one of the key agenda in front of the company. A 200cc sports version of the Xtreme is under development and is expected for launch in the coming quarters.

The company - which has seen its cumulative production cross 70 million this month -- said that bike sales are expected to bounce back on good monsoon and a possible revival in rural demand. Demand during the 'onam' festival in the south has been healthy and volumes moved up 35%. 

Source : Hero MotoCorp to focus on premium bikes category: Pawan Munjal

AHMEDABAD: Italian superbike maker Ducati has announced to open three more dealerships across India by the end of 2017, starting from Kochi.

Ducati India is at present operational in five major cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, besides the newly opened showroom-cum-service centre in Ahmedabad.

"We will open our next dealership in Kochi. We have planned to add another three dealerships within the course of 2017," Ducati India Managing Director Ravi Avalur told reporters during the launching ceremony of Ducati's cruiser bike XDiavel at their dealership on the SG Highway here today.

Avalur, however, maintained that company does not plan to open too many dealerships to maintain quality of services.

"Our plan is not to open too many dealerships because it will be difficult to maintain this quality and standard if we do so. We can't have dealers everywhere. We will be relatively contained compared to some of the major players," said Avalur.

According to him, the cruiser market in India is growing at a healthy rate, as around 6,500 bikes, which are above 500cc and having a price tag of more than Rs 4 lakh, were sold last calender year.

"Ducati's growth is of course better than the market. Though we have just launched this dealership, we have out-sold all our initial stock here. Last year, our highest selling model was Diavel," said Avalur.

The newly launched XDiavel comes with a price tag of Rs 16.93 lakh (ex-showroom). Another variant of the bike XDiavel S is available at 19.70 lakh (ex-showroom).

Source : Ducati to open 3 more dealerships in India by 2017 end

NEW DELHI: European arm of Japanese two wheeler manufacturer Honda Motor has confirmed the production of a new breed of motorcycle for the 2017 sales season - the 'X-ADV'.

Based on the City Adventure concept machine displayed at EICMA show in Milan in 2015, the X-ADV features an upright riding position for high visibility and long travel suspension to handle the roughest road surfaces. At the same time, the X-ADV offers the practicality of a 5 stage adjustable windscreen and storage space for an off-road style helmet, informed the company in a press statement.

The X-ADV will come with Honda's Dual Clutch Transmission as standard fitment.

The X-ADV will be shown to the public for the first time at the EICMA show in Milan, from 8 - 13 November 2016. Full technical specifications will also be available at this time.

Source : Honda confirms production of new ‘X-ADV’ motorcycle

NEW DELHI: Italian super-bike maker Ducati has said that demand for premium motorcycles has sobered down in India this year, but the market is likely to pick up in the coming time on festive cheer and new model launches.

Ravi Avalur, MD of Ducati in India, said that the growth rate for premium bike sales - priced above Rs 4 lakh - has tempered down in the last couple of months.

"Till last year, the market was going strong and industry-wide sales were up 47%. This year, we are seeing a growth of only around 15%," he said as the company launched the 'XDiavel' cruiser in two variants, priced at Rs 15.9 lakh and Rs 18.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

The premium bike market is estimated at about 6,500 units annually and companies selling the super-bikes include Harley-Davidson, Triumph, Kawasaki and Ducati. Harley-Davidson is already assembling its bikes in the country, and is the leader in the segment.

Avalur said that the slowdown in the pace of growth is a "temporary blip" which "should be corrected by the end of the year".

Ducati, which imports bikes from Thailand using India's free-trade agreement with the country, sells 11 models here which are priced between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 55 lakh. These include sports bikes and cruisers.

Speaking about the new launch, Avalur said the model is likely to see healthy demand here as Indians prefer to ride cruisers rather than pure sports models. "Cruisers are the largest segment in the luxury motorcycle category. We wanted to enter this segment... (and) the XDiavel achieves that... Our dealers have been overwhelmed with pre-bookings and we're confident that the XDiavel will be the cruiser-of -choice for the connoisseurs."

The company - which last year sold around 50,000 units globally -- had re-entered the Indian market in March last year. Avulur did not disclose the numbers it has sold so far. The company sells its bikes from 5 dealerships, including in Delhi-NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune.

CHENNAI: Scooters may be more preferred by urban customers but market leader Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) is kicking in a new strategy to push rural sales ahead of the festival season. The company is increasing production to better capture the rural markets, where demand is expected to rise, thanks to a good monsoon.

"Currently 28% of our total volume comes from rural markets. Earlier, the ratio was 1 scooter to 9 motorcycles in rural markets but now, of late, with better availability of scooters the ratio has improved to 3:9 ," said YS Guleria, senior VP-sales and marketing, HMSI.

Honda is able to kick off this rural focus in scooters thanks to a recent capacity addition that has allowed it to allocate more scooters for the festival season. "We started with our scooter-only factory in Sanand to breach the demand-supply gap in scooters and we have brought forward the second line in that plant to hit peak capacity by end August," said Guleria. As a result, the piling up of back orders have come down.

"Scooters back orders are down to 18,000 starting September compared to 35,000 last year. For the first time in 10 years, Honda scooters will be available off the shelf this festival season," he added. Typically, given the demand pile up, scooters were not available at the last mile in rural networks. With the new capacity addition, Honda hopes to fix that skew.

Also with a network increase of an additional 2,000 outlets in the last 3 years, HMSI is looking at a more balanced urban-rural mix. Honda commands 59% marketshare in scooters.

The capacity ramp would mean a higher share of scooters in Honda's overall sales mix. In the April-August period, 66% of the company's total sales came from scooters. With the ramp up in capacity, it will be in a position to supply enough to take that to 70% scooters.

Overall, Honda expects a more than 20% demand growth in the festival season as well as the first 10 months of the calendar. "We have been growing at a 22% trot in the April-August period as against the industry growth of 12%," said Guleria.

"We should be able to maintain 20% plus growth in the festival season and through the first 10 months. Overall we are seeing positive momentum already. The 7th Pay Commission, OROP and good monsoon should contribute to good growth," he said.

Source : Honda 2Wheelers India to push scooter sales in rural market