Auto Expo: How Much More Expensive Have Two-Wheelers Become Since The Last Expo?

We take a look at how much prices have risen in the last two years

There are only two certainties in life: death, and inflation. The motorcycling industry is particularly susceptible to the latter, proof of this is borne out by the ever-increasing prices that customers have to pay for two-wheelers. To illustrate just how much inflation there has been in the purchase cost of two-wheelers over the last couple of years alone, we’re going to check out some vehicles launched at the 2018 Auto Expo.

The list includes the Aprilia SR 125, Yamaha R15 v3, Yamaha YZF-R3 and 22Kymco Flow. This gives us a petrol scooter, an electric scooter, a small-displacement motorcycle and a middle-displacement motorcycle -- quite a decent spread.

Average Difference=Rs 17,006

Let’s start off with the Aprilia SR 125. Though it’s on the higher side in terms of displacement as far as scooters are concerned, in an absolute sense, it is still a small-displacement petrol-powered vehicle. This is the class of two-wheelers most susceptible to large hikes in price as emission norms get stricter and stricter.

Testament to this is the whopping Rs 21,000 increment that the SR 125 received as part of its BS6 update, which also included the addition of fuel injection. This along with other small hikes that the SR has received over the last couple of years for things like the inclusion of CBS mean that the total increase in price has been a massive Rs 28,186. The original launch price of Rs 65,310 isn’t even remotely in the same league as the current sticker price of Rs 93,496 - it’s actually an increase of 43.16 per cent!

Next up is the third generation of Yamaha’s popular little sportsbike, the R15 v3. Launched at the 2018 Auto Expo at Rs 1,25,000, it is now nearly Rs 21,000 more expensive, retailing for Rs 1,45,900 after its recent BS6 update. Over the course of this time, it has received multiple price hikes. A big increment came with the addition of dual-channel ABS, but there were numerous other small hikes that appear to have no apparent explanation. 

However, we can conclude in retrospect that these were probably introduced as an attempt to reduce the magnitude of the eventual BS6 price hike, which turned out to be a very reasonable Rs 4,420. Though Yamaha has done well by spacing out the overall increase and dividing it into multiple smaller hikes, when viewed as a whole, the R15 v3 is now nearly 17 per cent more expensive than it was when first launched.

Yamaha launched (or rather, re-launched) another motorcycle at the most recent Expo: the BS4-compliant YZF-R3 at Rs 3,48,000. And even though it isn’t in production anymore, it’s still listed on the manufacturer’s website and you can pick one up from the remaining unsold stock that some dealers have lying around. Official list price according to Yamaha India’s website is Rs 3,51,680.

This relatively small increase of Rs 3,680 has come from a couple of small hikes over the last two years, but it’s worth noting that the R3 isn’t BS6-compliant yet. In fact, there are no plans to make the R3 meet the upcoming emission norms before the April 1 deadline. This means that sales of the R3 will be temporarily (we hope) discontinued until 2021, when the bike re-enters our market in BS6 guise. Saddeningly, the R3 was updated globally in 2019 but cleaning up tailpipe emissions was not part of the update. 

Yamaha India hasn’t taken any initiative to update the bike itself either, which is quite disappointing. As and when the globally updated R3 makes its way to India, expect a hike in the range of Rs 10,000 to 15,000 over the current model.

The final two-wheeler on the list is a little tricky to address. That’s because 22Kymco launched the Flow e-scooter at Rs 74,740 at the 2018 Auto Expo, after which it launched the updated iFlow at an on-road price of Rs 90,000 in June 2019, and here we are in Jan 2020, yet to see a single example of either of these on our roads. Deliveries of the iFlow were slated to begin by the end of 2019 but obviously the brand hasn’t been able to meet this target. For the sake of this story, though, let’s restrict our scope to the pricing of these models.

It’s a bit tricky to compare ex-showroom and on-road prices, especially since this is an electric so registration charges and road taxes are different from petrol-powered vehicles, not to mention FAME subsidies. However, at Rs 73,417 (ex-showroom), the Okinawa Ridge+ electric scooter costs almost the same as the Flow. The on-road price for the Okinawa is Rs 78,500, which means that the difference between on-road prices for the Flow and iFlow is a little over Rs 10,000.

This is a bit confusing because the iFlow, being an electric, doesn’t have any emission regulations to adhere to, so there is no obvious reason for a price hike. In fact, with the technology for motors and battery packs becoming more and more advanced every day and the parts being manufactured in larger and larger numbers, prices should be coming down rather than going up.

On the plus side, certain e-scooters like the Ather 450 have become more affordable since they were first launched, and we suspect that the upcoming 450X might be even more affordable, so we hope that the iFlow’s price hike is merely a one-off occurrence.

In conclusion, one can see that we are at a tipping point in the two-wheeler industry and the auto industry as a whole. As governments across the world continue to tighten up emission norms year after year, it will become even more difficult and expensive for combustion engines to meet these stricter regulations. Beyond a certain point, it will become infeasible and soon after that, it’ll just be plain impossible.

At the same time, EV technology will continue to make strides. Batteries will be able to pack in more energy and motors will be able to sip on it more judiciously. Range anxiety is already becoming a thing of the past, and there are many electric vehicles out there that offer equivalent or even higher range than their petrol-powered counterparts.

We’ve seen prices for petrol-powered two wheelers rise incessantly and quite drastically over the past few months, and unfortunately this isn’t going to stop anytime soon. But on the plus side, electrics will not only become more affordable to purchase but also more feasible and convenient to use. Rather fittingly, the list of attendees for the 2020 Auto Expo is quite underwhelming as far as major manufacturers of petrol-powered two-wheelers is concerned, but there are quite a few interesting EV startups that will be in attendance.