Honda Activa 3G Challenges The 17-Year-Long Leadership Of Motorcycles

Honda gave the scooter segment in India a new lease of life when it entered the Indian market with its first product, the Activa, in the year 2000. Currently, it is the second highest selling two-wheeler in the market. In the very first year of its launch, Honda sold around 55,000 units of the Activa. Since then, the sales figures for the scooter have been showing an upward trend. It became the Honda Activa 3G and nudged close to India's top selling two-wheeler in 2015. Now, it was a battle between the market leader for the past 17 years and the most loved scooter of the country. Finally, the Activa succeeded in overtaking its closest competitor, the Hero MotoCorp Splendor, in October 2015 for the first time. But the Honda Activa wanted to break the monopoly of a motorcycle with maintaining a consecutive leadership to become the No. 1 selling two-wheeler of India. In 2016, Honda's dreams came true and the Activa became India's bestselling two-wheeler, outselling the Hero Splendor for seven consecutive months. The gap in leadership was at all-time high of 58,413 units in July 2016, which is indicative of a higher preference for the Activa in the market. Moreover, the scooter broke its own sales record in the month by crossing sales mark of 2.5 lakh units in the domestic market. If we look at the overall performance in Jan-July 2016, Activa sales have increased by 2.27 lakh units while the same for its nearest competitor (the Splendor) stood at just 19,910 units. Now, Honda can say that the Activa is the bestselling two-wheeler in India with a good margin, and we can expect the figure to increase further in the coming months.

Source: BikeDekho.com