Thank you CD for once again painstakingly compiling the dispatch figures. After months of breaking my head trying to prove some of the reported numbers were wrong, I'm throwing in the towel and just going ahead with the assumption that all the figures are correct. I have a couple of questions. One, why is the chart with the Macho 150 Class missing the Pulsar 150? Also, given that the near 400 cc Dominar and Duke 390 are in it, dont the Royal Enfield 350s need to be in the 300cc naked class category?
Considering the prevailing clouds that are hanging heavy over the automobile industry, I think the two wheeler market did better than many expected it to do. Sure a
1.1% MoM growth isnt great but its could have been a lot worse. It will be interesting to see how manufacturers manage the inventory pileup and manufacturing and whether they will go in for dangerous discounts.
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Bajaj's venerable CT100 saw dispatches fall by 19.8%. That 9,201 unit drop accounts for 54% of Bajaj's MoM drop. On the plus side, the Dominar is finally back into 3 figures. Hopefully the revised motorcycle pulls in some well deserved numbers at last but crossing the 1000 unit a month mark will be a tall task. Maybe the marketing heads at Bajaj might have something to say about it
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Harley Davidson pulled off a rare double pair for the Street 750 and Street Rod (
a cricketing reference that involves a batsman getting out without scoring in both innings of a test match). On the plus side, they managed to sell quite a few more of their expensive bikes.
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Hero Motor Corp usually never gets my attention but the 200R must be called a flop by Hero's lofty standards. Hope this teaches them a lesson.
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Honda's Livo nearly doubled its sales MoM. Im a motorcycle guy and hand on my heart, I have never seen / noticed a Honda Livo. Have you?
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Kawasaki had a worrying month because their fall in dispatches is masked by the arrival of the ZX6R. They lost 27% on their N300 in MoM dispatches. The company has pushed a lot of Z900s in the last few months, I dont know if that has been matched by corresponding sales. Signs point to inventory build up.
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Mahindra's numbers indicate that customer vehicles has been sent out but I havent heard of anyone receiving their bikes yet. So where did the 130 motorcycles go? Surely Mahindra should strike while the iron is warm and deliver these bikes at the earliest? Oh wait, I almost forgot conventional wisdom and Mahindra dont always go hand in hand
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Royal Enfield had a tough month as well. Though the 650s will bring in some volumes, there arent going to be a lot of profits associated with those bikes so the finance guys at RE must be frowning. Time for another round of special edition Classic 350s? I predict that if India wins the world cup we will get a special edition Classic 350 in the same colour as the cricket jersey with serialized numbers but owners will have to sign a disclaimer that they cannot take photos of their motorcycles near garbage dumps. Given RE's position, they might still go ahead and launch the said bike if India doesnt qualify into the next round of the world cup as well.
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Suzuki joined HD in the collecting the ignominious award of a double pair with the Intruder having no dispatches in Jan and Feb 2019. Back to the drawing board for Suzuki (
no pun intended).
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Triumph had another middle of the road performance. Though I said I will assume all the numbers are correct, I have to point out, the Speed Triple is not yet launched in India so the 5 units shown for Jan 2019 are wrong.
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TVS is seeing some of its stars like the err Star City and Victor GX fall from what they were doing a year ago. Im not sure if the Radeon is cannibalizing sales within TVS or if it is gnawing away at the competition.
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Yamaha had a good month. I believe the addition of ABS to the R15 should help it get better sales numbers. My prediction is 350 dispatches for the MT15 in next months report and below 100 units dispatched each month going forward. Anyone willing to bet on this?