Rivals race ahead as Honda loses grip on scooter market

AFTER MAINTAINING AN iron grip on the scooter market with its bestseller Activa for over two decades, Japanese heavyweight Honda has struggled to keep pacewith the growthin thesegment, resulting in a sharp decline in its market share over the past few years.

- SWARAJ BAGGONKAR

From 52% in FY21, the share of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) in the scooter segment has come down to below 40%, the lowest inmanyyears.By the end of September, its share stood at 39%, according to data shared by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

From 4.48 million units clocked in FY21, India’s domestic scooter market has grown to 6.85 million bythe end of FY25, a growth of 49%. HMSI’s volume growth in the same period hasbeen muchslowerat 22%to 2.84 million in FY25 from 2.32 million clocked in FY21.