War for No. 2 Spot: Honda leads Bajaj in May 2012

With the usual Hero MotoCorp sitting pretty at number one spot in the Indian two wheeler market, unsurprisingly the seamless war for the control over the second spot has begun yet between two giants, Bajaj and Honda. Honda had knocked Bajaj out of the second spot in the month of march, but India’s very own Bajaj was quick to bounce back and reclaim its spot in the month of April and now from the month of may again Honda has been able to win over Bajaj. Although the exact sales are unavailable, but a source claimed that HMSI has regained the second position. Bajaj Auto was able to sell 3,21,922 units in the month of May 2012. 1.21% more than what they did in the month of may at 3,17,989 units.

The figure of 3.21.922 units include exports, which means that the company was able to sell 1,90,000 to 2,00,000 motorcycles in the Indian markets in May 2012. HMSI has sold a comparatively less gross 2,21,540 units of two wheelers in May which is 52.02% more than 1,45,729 units in May 2011. The company has had a sulprus sale of 2,10,000 units in the domestic market in May 2012. The major contributor in the rapid growth of HMSI is the skyrocketing increase in sales of Activa. 1,26,033 units of the scooter have been sold in the month of May in 2012 compared to 76,241 units in May last year.

As one can rightly expect now, Honda and Bajaj will have a hard fought battle in the rest of the year too. Starting this month HMSI has Dream Yuga while Bajaj Auto has with it, the new Pulsar 200NS and Discover 125 ST. HSMI has a really strong chance to take on Bajaj Auto Dream Yuga achieves 30,000 units a year.  However, the capactity factor as plays an important role and for the year it will be really hard for HSMI to displace Bajaj Auto from its second spot in the financial year 2012-2013 keeping in mind the capacity constraint.