Sales of two-wheeler is on a rise, here’s why

Before the advent of easy auto loans and affordable hatchbacks, India's personal transport industry was ruled by scooters, a trend that seems to be coming back with the rise in scooter sales.

India, which is world's biggest two-wheeler market, now has one scooter in every three two-wheelers sold, reflecting a turnaround for the scooter industry after trailing behind motorcycles for about 25 years.

The reason for this shift towards trendy and gender-neutral scooters is the urban consumer, belonging to metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai, and also aspiring metros like Pune, Ahmedabad and Lucknow.

It was long back, in mid-1980s, when there was a craze amongst Indians to buy scooters, which actually had months-long waiting lists.

However, since motorcycles started to offer better fuel efficiency, people shifted their preferences against scooters, more so after India’s Hero Group and Japan's Honda joined hands.

Motorcycles were also able to better negotiate India's poor roads filled with holes, being considered safer because of their bigger wheel-base.

However, today, scooters come with automatic transmission, India has somewhat better roads, and more and more women are learning to ride two-wheelers. All these reasons combined have led to the share of scooters in the Indian two-wheeler market growing from 20% to 33% in the last five years.

Motorcycles, on the other hand, have their sales expanded in low single digits over the same period.

The claims are supported by data as well, since in FY17, Activa, from the house of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, has become the top seller in the country’s overall two-wheeler market, overtaking Hero Splendor, which ruled two-wheeler space for years because of its proven fuel economy.

(Image source YouTube)