Rivalry between two automobile giants, Hero Honda Motors and Bajaj Auto, India’s major two-wheeler makers, has stepped to acquire more customers with its eminent features. With 100cc segment, Hero Honda led to be the first to progress a healthy market with eminent records. Whereas Bajaj Auto seems to be thrashing on 100cc bikes and wants customers to upgrade to bigger bikes. It has begun developing a low-cost entry-level motorcycle (speculated to be named as ‘Steel’) specifically for the purpose.
Having a growth of 10% in 100cc segment, Hero Honda has been outperforming the market throughout the fiscal, against the industry average of only 7%. Besides 100cc bikes, non 100cc also have shown a positive growth figure of 1.6% (i.e.) a 2% increment in overall premium segment bikes (150cc and above). The figures couldn’t be confirmed independently since the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) classifies all bikes from 75cc up to 125cc as entry-level bikes.
Anil Dua, Executive Vice-President (marketing & sales), Hero Honda, said, “The recent turn of events has confirmed our stand on 100cc bikes. Penetration (of two-wheelers) is still low across India and people look for value-for-money bikes. This segment (100cc) is here to stay. Sure, over a long period of time, the share of 100cc will come down but how can anyone ignore two-thirds of the market?” Bajaj Auto has started reducing its focus on 100cc more than ever before. Media reports claims that Bajaj has not been progressing well on 100cc bike sales and is keen to gradually upgrade 100cc customers.
It also added that a low-cost, entry-level bike (Steel) is already being tested for launch. This may clearly sketch that Bajaj is taking the battle back to the Hero Honda camp as the market leader appears to have no immediate plans of entering the low-cost bike space.