Two wheeler companies Honda and Hero increase product prices; no change from Bajaj, TVS, Yamaha

Leading Indian two wheeler manufacturers Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) have together raised the prices of their products in the run-up to the October festive season. While the Hero group increased prices in the range of Rs 250-550 with effect from September 22 on some products except for Maestro, HMSI raised prices by up to Rs 450,

A senior Hero MotoCorp official was quoted as saying, "We have raised the prices of some of our models by Rs 250-550. This has been done to partially to recover input costs and offset the cascading effect of the consistently-rising diesel costs, which have impacted costs of in-bound and out-bound logistics, power generation and overall transportation."

In a similar manner, HMSI followed suit with a raise of up to Rs 450, attributing this to rising input and transportation costs. However, the company has explained that prices of volume-driving scooters such as Activa, Dio and Aviator have been changed in the band of Rs 100-200. Thereby, the new prices of motorcycles such as Shine, Unicorn, Trigger and the Dream series are effective from September 22.

Honda Activa, India's top-selling scooter, constitutes two-third of HMSI's domestic scooter sales. The rise was brought into effect during the shradh period when most Hindus generally avoid making new product purchases.

Other two-wheeler makers like Bajaj Auto, TVS Motors and Yamaha India have so far not declared any change in prices. Commenting on the same, Eric Vas, President, (motorcycle business), Bajaj Auto, said, "We have not increased prices. No plan to do so till Dussera." According to sources, sales of products at Bajaj Auto has been very healthy so far.