In six years, Honda becomes No one two-wheeler brand in 15 Indian states

MUMBAI: On the back of continued demand for its models, led by the automatic scooter Activa, Honda 2Wheelers has become the largest brand in as many as 15 states and two Union territories over the past six years which together account for over 52 per cent of the market.

Quoting Siam (the umbrella body of the industry) data, Honda today said during the April-September period of this fiscal year, they were the No 1 two-wheeler brand in Maharashtra with 43 per cent market share, Gujarat (46), Andhra & Telengana (33), and it enjoys 30 per cent volume share in Tamil Nadu.

While in Karnataka it has 35 per cent volume share, in Kerala it leads with 41 per cent, Punjab (36), Delhi (29), Uttarakhand (43), Jammu & Kashmir (36), Himachal (33), Goa and Chandigarh (57 per cent each), Manipur (59), Arunachal (46), The Andaman & Nicobar Islands (52) and Nagaland with 31 per cent volume share, the company said.

Honda said these 15 states and the two Union Territories together account for 52 per cent of all two- wheeler market in the country.

This also means that the Japanese brand tops the entire Western and the Southern regions. This was achieved in the past six year alone when it was the leader only in Arunachal Pradesh and Goa in 2011.

Minoru Kato, president & chief executive, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, attributed the achievement tot their "deep understanding of customer needs and dreams coupled with quality of their products." Over the past six years, Honda has expanded from one to four plants with 11 assembly lines with an installed capacity of 6.4 million units a year, and tripled their network reach.

Till November, Honda has been driving the incremental volume game with close to 50 per cent volume.

Yadvinder Singh Guleria, SVP of the company, attributed the landmark to the increasing scooterization and the rise in its motorcycle sales.

The company has set a 20 per cent or 1 million incremental sales for this fiscal and has already achieved over 17 per cent volume growth till November.