Best-selling Hero Bikes and Scooters In March 2021: Hero Splendor, HF Deluxe, Destini 125 And More

The Hero HF Deluxe, Splendor range continue to be the cash cows for the Indian bike maker

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has pushed consumers more towards personal modes of transportation. And Hero MotoCorp is one of the brands that offers the most frugal, value-for-money two-wheelers for point A to point B commutes. Consequently, its sales numbers in March reflect this sentiment as it tallied healthier numbers this month compared to last year. Take a look at the sales figures:

Hero Scooters:

The Hero Pleasure Plus and the Hero Destini 125 have taken the top honours in the Indian two-wheeler manufacturer’s 110cc and 125cc scooter lineup, respectively. 

When Hero MotoCorp upgraded its lineup to comply with BS6 norms, the Maestro Edge was only available in a 125cc guise. So in March 2020, the Maestro Edge tallied only 3,538 units. The 110cc iteration was launched only in September 2020, and this could’ve played a big role in improving the overall sales of the Maestro Edge range in March 2021.

All said and done, these numbers are still a fraction of 1,99,208-unit tally of India’s best-selling scooter, the Honda Activa range (both Activa 6G and Activa 125 combined). 

Hero Commuter Bikes (100cc-110cc range):

As expected, the Hero Splendor Plus and the Hero HF Deluxe have been ruling the roost in the 100cc segment.

At Rs 50,700 (ex-showroom Delhi), even though the entry-level version of the Hero HF Deluxe is a whole Rs 11,835 less than the base variant of the Hero Splendor Plus, the Splendor’s sheer brand recall has kept it a hit among buyers. Having said that, the HF Deluxe has also tallied healthy figures. Comparatively, the next most popular commuter bike, the Bajaj Platina range recorded just 69,025 units in March 2021. And now with the introduction of the Hero’s most affordable bike, the Hero HF 100 (based on the Hero HF Deluxe), the sales of the HF Deluxe range are expected to improve even further.

All said and done, the cumulative sales of the Splendor range from April 2020 to March 2021 have gone down by almost 5 percent percent year-on-year. Even the HF Deluxe witnessed a decline of 19 percent in the same time frame. The nationwide lockdown announced in the second half of March 2020 is likely the reason for the drop in numbers.

Hero Commuter Bikes (125cc segment):

The Hero Glamour 125 and the Hero Super Splendor are the only two offerings by Hero in the 125cc motorcycle segment. The former tallied 32,371 units in March 2021, a massive 154 percent gain year-on-year. 

On the other hand, Hero sold 40,388 units of the Super Splendor in the same month, a slightly disappointing 4.2 percent drop year-on-year. Interestingly, even if you put together the sales of both the bikes, it is still nowhere close to the best-seller in its segment, the Honda CB Shine, which tallied 1,17,943 units in March this year.

Hero Premium Bikes (160cc and 200cc range):

The Hero Xtreme 160R was launched only in June 2020, so in March 2020 Hero was selling just the Xtreme 200S, which sold a scant 194 units. That explains the massive jump in the combined sales of the Xtreme 160R and Xtreme 200S in March 2021. That said, the March 2021 sales numbers are low as Hero manufactured a total of only 401 units of the Xtreme 160R and Xtreme 200S that month. The production numbers are low likely due to unsold stocks.

Compared to March last year, the massive gain for the Hero XPulse 200 can be attributed to the fact that at the time, Hero was in the process of upgrading the XPulse to BS6 norms, and there simply weren’t any Xpulses to go around. The BS6 XPulse was launched only in July 2020. 

The sales in April 2021 are expected to see a dip due to the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown in several states. Hero MotoCorp recently announced that it is shutting down its manufacturing and parts plants across the country in a staggered manner from April 22 to May 1. It says the down time will be utilised to carry out necessary maintenance work at the plants.