In-Line Sales For Bajaj Auto In May | Looking At Exports Of 2.5 Lakh Units From Hereon, Says Company

Good morning, Rima. We breached the 2 lakh mark I think in October '25 and then from March onwards, it has been hovering between 2 lakh 15,000 and 2 lakh 20,000. I think we would have reached the 2 lakh 50,000 mark in May, but for the impairments on the supply chain side, which is the availabilities and plus also the logistics issues which one is facing in exports. And that pushed the number down. But yes, with things coming back on track and supply chain availabilities looking promisingly better in June, I think we should be clocking more than 250,000.

Yes, we are looking at 250,000 here onwards for the next few months. Our order book and our retails are suggesting that. The only caveat to that is any major disruption in logistics.

Yes, part of this recovery, or let me say the acceleration which we are seeing, the surge in exports which we are seeing is also driven by Nigeria. I mean, there are three drivers to it. Nigeria, rest of Africa coming back very strongly, and of course Latin America continuing to grow at 35% for us. So within that, Nigeria is now clocking a growth rate of almost 80 to 100% compared to the same period last year. The numbers are still coming in, but I would say that the retails would be at about 36, 37,000 last month, which is significantly above the 18, 19,000 which we were achieving in the same period last year.

Yeah, you're very right. Actually, the motorcycle industry was on a breathtaking run ever since the GST cut and the festive cheer continued in December, January, February, March. In fact, March for the industry was 20%. It dropped to about 11%, and the latest Vahan registrations are suggesting that it has further dropped to 4-5% now. The two-wheeler registrations on the Vahan portal are suggesting that. So there has been a sharp decline between March and April, May, largely I would say driven by the inflationary pressures. There have been price increases which we have taken, the industry has taken, which has reversed almost 50 to 60% of the gain which we had got from the cut in the GST rates. So that has dampened enthusiasm a little bit. Then there is also of course consumer sentiment which because of the LPG shortages, this whole issue has come into every kitchen of India and that has depressed the consumer sentiment and that tends to sort of push discretionary purchase. Now, the only thing which is bucking the trend out here is the top 25% of the industry which is still maintaining very similar growth rates to let's say January, February, March. Otherwise, the industry has definitely slowed down quite a bit.

Yeah, every time the petrol prices move up significantly, we see a surge. The last time this happened, there was a point of inflection when petrol prices touched 100 rupees per liter and suddenly we saw a surge in EV. And this is what we are witnessing right now with the petrol prices increasing and consumers anticipating some more increases. There is very, very strong support for EV. The e-scooters are growing at about 60-70% industry and the e-three-wheeler industry is growing at 100%. Those are really very, very big numbers. In May, despite testing our challenging our supply chain capacities, we have gained about a percentage of market share and are at the number two position now consistently in e-three-wheelers. Again, supply chain got tested over there, but we are by far clearly now the number one player in terms of own registrations. And combined, when I put it together, the e-portfolio of Bajaj Auto is now over 50,000 units, 1,000 crores, and profitable, 25% of its domestic revenues.

Yes, so like I said, Chetak gained, Rima, a percentage point basis, again, own registrations, and is now at 23%. And like I said, we don't get into segmental level profitability, but suffice it to say that we are in healthy single digits in the e-portfolio now.

Yes, yes.

No, in May, Rima, I said it, it is about 5%. The two-wheeler industry is 5%. In April, it was 11-12%. So between March and May, the industry growth rate has really plummeted. Inflationary pressures are still there. Consumer sentiment is still cautious given all that is swirling around on the economic front and the geopolitical front. So we will have to really wait and watch as to how it goes, but I certainly don't expect it to improve immediately because listen, we are also getting into now a very low period where the degrees of freedom in terms of movement and what companies can do is very limited. June, July, part of August, second half of June, then July and first half of August are generally very, very soft months. So I would say it'll be great if we can maintain, if the industry comes out with similar numbers as what has happened in May. 5% or so, that'll be great if that happens.

So, in the industry, one has to sort of peel the onion a little bit. Like I said, what is bucking the trend is the top 25% of the industry where we are a major player above the 150 cc. That is still growing very, very strongly and we are gaining market share over there since last October. I think we've launched 10 new variants. 60% of our sales in that segment is now coming from there. Secondly, the e-portfolio. Now, e-scooter business is absolutely new business for us because we were not in scooters. And of course the e-three-wheelers which are as profitable as our domestic ICE three-wheelers. These two sub-segments are bucking the trend and then there is the exports, which is holding out very good promise for the next few months at least as far as we can see. So when I put this together, the challenge is really not that we have to hunker down and there is a slowdown expected. I would say the challenge would be to ensure that we navigate all this turmoil which is happening in supply chain and logistics and make sure that we pursue very hard these three segments which are bucking the trend in the overall industry. The dollar has helped us, it is 95 plus, it was 93 in April, it was 90 in quarter four and that helps us to mitigate the inflationary pressures on the raw material side, part of which has also been recovered through very measured cost increases. So basically we are having a very hard focus on pursuing these segments which are standing out: exports, high-end motorcycles, e-business. We are ensuring that through a combination of the mix, through a combination of rupee devaluation and the volumes which we will get, we hope to be able to maintain the margin outlook as we have been delivering in the last two-three months.

Thank you, Nigel.