Hero MotoCorp sees highest single-day sales of 3 lakh units

Two-wheeler orders on Dhanteras follow a season of records, says official

The country’s largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp has recorded highest ever single-day sales of over three lakh vehicles on October 17, the day of Dhanteras.

“This festive season has been a blockbuster for Hero MotoCorp. The highest-ever single day retail sales of well over three lakh units on Dhanteras comes on the back of what has been a season of new global records for Hero,” a senior company official said.

‘Pent-up demand’

The company had registered the highest-ever numbers in monthly sales, of seven lakh vehicles in September, the official said.

Hero MotoCorp had also posted record sales of more than 20 lakh units in July-September 2017.

“I am not surprised by this. [In the] last two years, there hasn’t been much demand from the rural areas due to slowdown owing to lack of good monsoons. So, there is a lot of pent up demand. Hero MotoCorp is very strong is these areas,” according to Abdul Majeed, partner-automotive at PriceWaterhouse.

While there is a pick up in sentiment in both rural and urban areas, there is more pent-up demand in the rural areas, he added.

Two-wheeler sales in the country have grown 10.14% in the current fiscal year(April-September 2017) over the same period last year. While sales of scooters grew 17.26% to more than 35.77 lakh units, those of motorcycles rose 7.71% to more than 65.08 lakh units.

Last month, two-wheeler sales grew 9.05%. While motorcycle sales climbed 6.98% to more than 12.69 lakh units, scooter sales rose 13.19% to more than 6.86 lakh units.

Industry body SIAM had attributed the growth to “an indication of rebound” in the rural market on the back of a good monsoon.

Sridhar V, partner at Grant Thornton India, had earlier said that the auto sector had seen refreshing growth across all segments and had witnessed the highest dispatches due to new introductions for the festival season as well as favourable monsoons and clearer regulatory and tax positions on pollution and GST fronts.

“Two-wheelers have been setting a good pace in the last six months and growing consistently crossing the two-million volume in September,” he commented.