Honda Motorcycles confident of achieving 46 lakh sales

Honda Motorcycles and Scooter India has three operational plants currently. And a fourth one is getting ready. This should leave Honda with an installed capacity of 46 lakh units; a capacity Honda believes, it can completely utilise. And we won't bet against it; Honda Motorcycles is, after all, the two-wheeler company that has shown the highest growth in the last two years. It has gained market share and has moved up the ladder becoming the number two motorcycle maker in the country. That, its Activa also became the largest selling two-wheeler in the country in March, only loads the bases in the Japanese bike maker's favour.

According to Honda, every fifth two wheeler sold in India is an automatic scooter. And every other scooter sold in the country is an Activa. And these numbers are without a significant contribution from the Activa i, which only went on sale in August last year. So, with the Activa i in full swing and the introduction of the Activa 125 (Also Read: Honda Activa 125 launched at Rs 52,447), Honda believes, its scooter numbers, and with it the overall figure is set to rise significantly. (Also Read: Auto Expo 2014: Honda Activa 125 Preview)

Among motorcycles, the numbers will come from the Dream series. The Dream Yuga and the Dream Neo together sell around 30,000 units a month. This number will rise according to Honda as the company increases in focus and push in the tier 2 and tier 3 towns for these motorcycles. Also, like the Activa i, the Neo's contribution to the Dream series numbers isn't as high as Honda predicts it will be in the coming months.

As for its remaining range of motorcycles, the Unicorn continues to do well, but the Honda CB Trigger, like the CB Dazzler before it, hasn't been able to generate the sort of traction Honda was expecting. Honda was looking at the ever increasing young bike buyers with the Trigger, but hasn't able to crack the code yet. It's the same with its CBR range of motorcycles.  Now, these motorcycles might be pricey, and with it will help the dealer get more margins, but, the affinity of the dealer staff to push a product that's already selling well (because it is easier), is seen as one of the reasons for Honda's lacklustre performance in this category. Having more potent, and better priced competitors also have a role to play here.

Honda realises that the target of 46 lakh two wheelers cannot be achieved without having a wide footprint. And therefore, it will continue to expand its dealership network this year as well. The network expansion will, however, only concentrate on tier 2 and tier 3 towns. Honda says, it already has a wide footprint in larger cities, and in fact, has the most number of dealers in a few of those cities as well. But, the smaller towns is where the growth for its volume products will come from. But, Honda isn't leaving it there; it will work harder towards incentivising these dealers too, to achieve higher, tougher targets.