TVS Motor Company Ltd has regained the second position in the Indian scooter market that it lost to Hero MotoCorp about a year ago.

Sustaining volumes even after demonetisation helped TVS Motor in its comeback.In the three months up to January, the company’s scooter sales were 1,88,609 units, down just 3 per cent from 1,94,056 units in the same period a year ago. However, Hero’s scooter sales nearly halved to 1,21,144 units, down 49 per cent from 2,35,465 units.

TVS’ total scooter sales stood at 6,77,172 units for the 10-month period of this fiscal, while Hero’s volumes were about 6,58,255 units. A year ago, Hero’s sales were higher by about 742 units.

“The relative impact of demonetisation across players could be a function of the quantum of urban vs rural and the number of days of stock,” Aniruddha Haldar, Vice-President, Marketing-Scooters, TVS Motor, told BusinessLine .

“We maintain a very healthy 30-day stock. Our urban and rural exposure is also well balanced out. So, changes in that exposure could be a possible reason for variation in the degree of impact. But as far the general demand is concerned, November and December were difficult months. But it started correcting it from January.”

Actually, Hero managed to increase its market share to about 14 per cent (from 11 per cent) five quarters ago, supported by new scooter launches, till the currency ban dented its volumes.

Steep decline

“Due to the impact of demonetisation, there was a steep decline of 15 per cent in the two-wheeler industry,” said a top official of Hero MotoCorp. The company is yet to fully recover. However, Hero is hopeful of improving its volumes in the coming months with the upcoming BS IV scooters.

TVS Motor has also unveiled a BS IV-compliant variant of its executive scooter Wego in new colours, and an all-new scooter is to be launched next fiscal.

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