Suzuki Motorcycle India a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan is all set to launch a new scooter at the upcoming 2012 Auto Expo. Scooter sales grew 39% year-onyear in November, a 22-month high. Hero & Honda have lined up new launches, while Yamaha has decided to enter the segment in India to tap its potential.
Suzuki India also plans to launch a new model at the 2012 Auto Expo to tap the growing demand.
“We cannot cope with the demand with our single scooter offering, Access 125. So we plan to come out with a second model, which will be launched during the upcoming Auto Expo,” said Atul Gupta, VP (marketing & sales) at Suzuki Motorcycles India. The company has a booking backlog of about 30,000 scooters, even after a 30% expansion in monthly production to 27,000 units, Gupta added. In November, two-wheeler makers sold 229,309 scooters and 869,000 motorcycles.
Customers have to wait for as much as three months for the more popular models such as Honda Activa, Suzuki Access and Hero Honda Pleasure.
The demand in the segment is being partly driven by women and tier II cities where infrastructure has improved over the past few years. Tier II cities now account for about 20% of overall scooter sales, against 15% last year. The changing socio-economic environment in the country has also helped push up sales among women, who now form a larger part of the working population.
Women comprise 12%-14% of the 10-million two-wheeler users in the country. In terms of new buyers, they account for 30%-35% of total sales.
The growth in the scooter segment is being fuelled by socio-economic factors including the rise in the number of working women, spread of smaller and satellite towns, and the overall economic growth in the country that is expected to sustain for the next few years.
Info Source: ET
