Hero MotoCorp surpasses Honda to become India’s largest scooter exporter

The Indian scooter market, which notched handsome 25.06 percent YoY growth in FY2014-15, has seen a massive jump in total export volumes. Export numbers have risen by 117.12 percent YoY during FY2014-15. According to industry data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), FY2014-15 recorded total scooter exports (90cc-125cc) of 189,240 units as against 87,161 units shipped in FY2013-14.

Unlike FY2012-13 and FY2013-14, the last financial year saw Hero MotoCorp exporting the most number of scooters from India surpassing Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) by a thin margin.

Hero MotoCorp has registered a more than four-fold growth (356.24 percent) in its scooter exports, exporting a total of 79,956 units in FY2014-15. The company’s cumulative exports for the last fiscal jumped from 17,525 scooter units in FY2013-14 on the back of a one-time order from Sri Lanka for about 45,000 units of scooter models. The company is known to have diverted substantial scooter production capacity during Q2 and Q3 of FY2014-15 to address this demand, putting slight pressure on its domestic supplies for that period. The company’s total scooter production capacity last year is known to be 75,000 units per month.

HMSI also boosted its FY2013-14’s scooter export volume of 51,932 units by 49.84 percent during FY2014-15. The company exported a total of 77,814 scooters in the last fiscal, becoming the second largest scooter exporter from India during FY2014-15.

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TVS Motor Company, on the other hand, is maintaining a linear growth in its scooter exports from India. Its cumulative scooter exports during FY2014-15 stood at 15,570 units, registering a growth of 30.59 percent over its FY2013-14’s scooter exports, which were 11,923 units.

Suzuki Motorcycle India and India Yamaha Motor too have shown commendable growth on the scooter export front. Suzuki, which hasn’t performed well in the domestic scooter market, has increased its export profile – from only 699 scooters in FY2013-14, it despatched  5,712 scooters overseas in FY2014-15. Meanwhile, Yamaha’s scooter export volumes have grown from 1,635 units in FY2013-14 to 6,271 units in FY2014-15.

Overall, this growth in scooter exports highlights that as demand grows in foreign markets for made-in-India products, vehicle manufacturers will increasingly look to fully utilise their production capacities.