The festive season will witness record retail sales of two-wheelers this year as “there is a tremendous pent-up demand in the market, particularly in rural areas”, Hero MotoCorp chief growth officer Ranjivjit Singh said.
“Almost the entire country has now opened up to near normal after the pandemic, and this has fuelled a resurgence in personal mobility need across most parts of the country,” he told ET.
While sales of two-wheelers have been on a revival mode, growing by 33% year on year to 6.7 million units in the first five months of the ongoing fiscal year, annual volumes are yet to reach the peak of 21 million units seen in 2018-19.
Sales of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds stood at only 13.5 million units in the last fiscal as demand – at the entry level in particular – in the past two years has been hit due to a sharp rise in acquisition costs post the transition to Barat Stage VI (BSVI) emission norms as well as the impact of the pandemic, industry insiders said.
Stakeholders are banking on strong consumer sentiments this festive period to turn around their fortunes.
To tap into potential demand, Hero MotoCorp will introduce at least eight new variants, starting with Xtreme 160R Stealth 2.0 edition, to be followed by the refreshes and new colour schemes of popular models such as HF Series, Splendor+ and Glamour.
