Competition is set to heat up in the two-wheeler market in India with former partners Honda Motor Company (HMC) and Hero MotoCorp both gearing up to launch indigenously developed products in the next financial year.
Under development at the integrated Technical Centre commissioned at subsidiary Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India’s (HMSI) Manesar facility recently are four new products from the Japanese auto major. The first of these would be launched in the Indian market in FY14.
“The Technical Centre at Manesar is first of its kind for Honda globally. Engineers from both HMSI and Honda R&D India (HRDI) are jointly working on projects to introduce products at a faster pace in the Indian market. We intend to launch at least a new product every quarter in the country. This will include both refreshes and new models. The first product developed from scratch at the Centre would be launched next fiscal”, said Keita Muramatsu, president and chief executive officer, HMSI.
Honda has hired 200 engineers to work at the Technical Centre in Manesar, half of whom belong to HMSI and remaining are on the payroll of Honda Research & Development India (HRID). “The research and development (R&D) team will leverage local sourcing and production infrastructure with innovation to the maximum extent to create products that directly respond to the needs of the customers in India”, added Muramatsu.
Hero MotoCorp, in the meantime, has forged technological alliances with Italian design firm Engines Engineering, US-based performance bike manufacturer Erik Buell Racing (EBR) and Austrian engine developer AVL to introduce its own range of two-wheelers by 2016. The first indigenously developed product without Honda technology would be launched by Hero MotoCorp in 2014.
HMSI has already declared its intention to topple erstwhile partner Hero MotoCorp and wrest the number one slot in the Indian two-wheeler market by the end of the decade. However, the company with a market share of 18.6%, trails significantly behind rival Hero MotoCorp (with market share of 42.6%) in domestic sales. To close the gap with the market leader, HMSI is now looking at introducing indigenously developed products with high localization content at aggressive price points in the country.
The company today introduced upgraded versions of its three scooters, Activa, Dio, Aviator with Honda Eco Technology engines. While Activa and Dio are priced at Rs 47,148 and Rs 44,701 respectively, Aviator is priced between Rs 48,212 and Rs 53,531. The company claims that these new variants offer 15% better mileage at 60 km per litre, compared to 54 km per litre earlier.
Despite sales slowing down to a meagre 4.09% in the domestic two-wheeler market, HMSI has managed to clock in growth rate of 37% between April and December this financial year. The company has sold 1.94 million units till December. Hero MotoCorp has reported a decline of around two% to sell 4.24 million two-wheelers in the same period.
