I think it's simple
- price
- mileage
- people who look for style or technology are still in minority.

Yamaha started generating sales volume-wise only after launch of FZ-16 in mid-sep last year , which kept on increasing from there on… result more sales growth figures in months before nov09….i think Yamaha will post similar low figures from now on unless it revamp its products and come up with something exciting like R15 or FZ16 ….
Also they are selling mostly in urban market and less in rural market restricting their sales numbers…

Indian and world economy during Oct-Dec quarter was in a worse shape in 08' compared to now. If I am not mistaken, two-wheeler finance was withdrawn by major Financial Institutions/Banks. Resumption of financing and easing off recessionary condition has also contributed in the overall growth of the industry.

Bajaj's number deserve admiration. Whatever opinion one might have about their products, I think they understand the Indian Consumer pysche well. The question is, when the market matures will they be able to deliver? I think they can, considering their tie-ups & buy-outs.

Hero-Honda is manufacturing Splendour and selling for the past many years. It continues to do so

Yamaha's number is disappointing. 17,000 odd units How much does FZ-16 cost? Rs.65k? (I don't know) Certainly not a good number. But I hope they don't get into Crux, Alba, Libero antics. If the margins are good they should stick to being a niche player. Else, the 17,000 people who are buying now maynot buy their products.

Wonder how the sequential numbers look like...

I just hope somebody from this lot comes up with an affordable 250cc bike before I turn too old for biking

month on month sales

@payeng : kudos for publishing the sales data.


btw, will doing a month on month analysis give a better understanding of how the bike manufacturers are performing ?

India Yamaha Motors sold 26394 bikes in the month of September 2009 in the Indian market. It sold 10142 in the same month last year. Yamaha has been launching interesting products catering to all the segments of the market in India.
source- burnyourfuel.com

That's a 160% rise over the previous year.Now if you look at the launch dates it is obvious that yamaha hit the market by storm by launching FZ & R15 last year & suddenly the company which was selling around 8-10k units per month rose to twice of that.

after that over the entire year they have consistently sold above 15k units every month thus maintaining a linear curve.

This also is primararily based on Fz series sales as this is the one which is being bought in numbers by the masses.

Imagine a double hike in your sale based on a single product initiative.

That's the classic marketing/sales case for you.


PS:fyi for flammers:I own pulsars & R15 too without any brand loyalty.The above is only a statistical data.

let me give you detail facts behind huge growth of bajaj in november.If i am not mistaken then do you guys remember that in same period last year Bajaj's sales were down 40-50 % so supposing if any manufacturer sales is 100 then 50% drop means 50(previous year's nov. sales),thus if they have grown 85% of 50 it means 43 units growth approximately it means arount 93-95 in total as compared to 100 in year preceeding to previous year (2007-08).So overall it means that they have covered what they losed in 2008-09 & comparing figure of 2009-10 against 2007-08 there isnt any significant growth.

+1 except for the linear curve bit

and +100 for the last line! "Product led turnaround..."

^^^ covering lost ground is not an easy thing either. That too when they lost about 50% and coming back up in an year...

XCD & Discover 100 did help them in this process. Pulsar brand face-lift (UG IV) did help pretty well. But I am really disappointed at the fact that the much publicized XCD brand is now under the axe in such a short period. Hope the Disco 100 can hold the ground for a few years.

Although what you say is word by word truth and bajaj still has some ground to recover before it can even be a break even situation for them I am still stunned that they could do even this much of recovery based on the Pulsar series. I thought they with the advent of FZ the pulsar is going to die its death, but Bajaj really weathered the storm and seem to be coming back with the same brand whereas its FZ which seems to have hit the pleateu whereas I for one consider the FZ to be best 150 cc in the market if once could ignore the low fuel efficiency and yes this comes from a man who is very very loyal to Pulsar brand.