Scooter and bike sales in India set for pickup in festive season: TVS Motor

The two-wheeler industry in India is likely to see significant growth in the next few months during the festive season due to growth in demand. TVS Motor, one of India's largest two-wheeler manufacturers, feels rising rural demand and good Monsoon will help the industry to witness further growth in coming days. TVS Motor, which recently launched the Jupiter 110, expects the scooter sales to increase overall volume across the country.

For the first time since the Covid pandemic, two-wheeler sales in rural India has overtaken that of the urban centres. Between April and July, the two-wheeler sales grew by 13.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2023 with demand for scooters and bike rising to 14.5 per cent in rural areas. Scooters contributed around 32 per cent of the overall two-wheeler sales during this period. TVS backs scooter sales amid rising acceptance among rural buyers.

Aniruddha Haldar, Senior Vice President - Head Commuter Business at TVS Motor, says demand in rural segment outgrowing that in the urban areas is a good sign for the industry. During an interaction with news agency PTI, he said, “In the first few months of this fiscal, we have seen the two-wheeler industry growing at 13 per cent, which is higher than what we have seen in the recent years. Even more heartening is the fact that in recent times we are seeing the rural demand starting to outstrip urban areas."

Haldar feels the growth story will continue through the festive season spread over the next couple of months. He feels a good spell of rains will also help boost demand for two-wheelers in the next few months. "Given these indicators and the fact that monsoon this year, while it has given us excessive blessings in some areas, on the whole it has been bountiful. We are confident that the overall two-wheeler industry going into the festive season will exceed the current growth rates," Haldar said.

TVS Motor recently launched the Jupiter 110 scooter in India at a starting price of ₹73,700 (ex-showroom). The Jupiter 110 is one of the best-selling scooters in the Indian market since it was first launched back in 2013. TVS hopes it will help revive the segment after years of muted growth. Haldar said, “What we see happening is that the acceptance of scooters has increased even among rural markets. I think moving forward, there will be a greater share of the market that will move towards scooters. And you see that because there was a time when the cost of switching between a motorcycle and a scooter meant a reasonable amount of loss in terms of mileage, which, thanks to technology, that gap has narrowed considerably."

2024 TVS Jupiter will renew its rivalry with the likes of Honda Activa, another popular scooter in the Indian market. The Jupiter 110 now comes powered by a 113.3 cc air-cooled engine with fuel injection. Mated to a CVT automatic transmission, the engine can generate output of 7.91 bhp of power and 9.2 Nm of peak torque.

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