Coronavirus dents bike, three-wheeler March sales

Two-wheeler and three-wheeler offtake receded on a year-on-year basis in March as depressed demand sentiment along with uncertainty regarding Covid-19 dented sales.

Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp's March sales, including exports, stood at 334,647 units from an off-take of 581,279 units sold during the year-ago month. "In March 2020, the auto industry and the entire global economy has been faced with an unprecedented disruption, owing to the novel coronavirus," the company had said in a statement.

"The Covid-19 has resulted in interrupted supply chains, halted production and lockdown, leading to no retails." On March 22, the company proactively suspended production at all its manufacturing facilities - including in India, Colombia, Bangladesh and Global Parts Centre (GPC) at Neemrana until April 14.

Similarly, two- and three-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company saw its sales skid to 144,739 units in March owing to coronavirus lockdown effect. In a statement, TVS Motor said it had sold 325,323 units in March 2019.

Furthermore, Suzuki Motorcycle India registered 40,636 unit sales until March 22, that was followed by a production halt due to Covid-19. The company had sold 67,025 units in March 2019. On the other hand, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India closed March 2020 with total sales of 261,699 units as against 249,136 units in March 2019.