Hero MotoCorp, Honda offer discounts up to Rs 24,000 to sell BS III models

A day after the Supreme Court (SC) passed the judgment to ban all Bharat Stage (BS) III vehicles after April 1, two-wheeler companies Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) have offered a huge discounts of upto Rs 12,500 to liquidate the large unsold inventory they have.

Two-wheeler companies have the largest unsold inventory of BS III vehicles amounting to 6.71 lakh, according to figures provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to the SC. In total there are over 8 lakh unsold BS III vehicles which include 96,000 commercial vehicles and 40,000 three-wheelers.

With only two days left automobile companies and dealers are scrambling to clear out such a huge inventory. As a result the companies are offering some of the biggest discounts the industry has ever seen.

Hero MotoCorp is offering a discount of upto Rs 12,500 on the sales of its BS III vehicles, according to a PTI report. While scooters get a rebate of Rs 12,500, premium bikes are being discounted by 7,500 and mass marker motorcycles are discounted by Rs 5,000.

For instance, Hero Splendor Plus is being offered at a Rs 5,000 discount, Hero Maestro Edge has a discount of Rs 12,500. 

Honda Motorcycle, on the other hand, is offering a flat discount of Rs 10,000 on its BS III scooters and motorcycles.

The Honda CBR I50 R has a discount of Rs 24,000, the Honda Rs 22,000, Honda Activa 3G Rs 5,000 and the Honda Deo Rs 12,000.

Even TVS is offering discounts up to Rs 10,000. While the TVS Apache RTR 200 and TVS Jupiter are discounted by Rs 10,000, the TVS Victor 110 is cheaper by Rs 5,000. 

Besides this, even superbikes companies are offering bikes at a massive discounts. Triumph is offering discounts up to Rs 3 lakh and Ducati discounts up to Rs 2.7 lakh.

The Triumph Thunderstorm is being offered at a discount of up to Rs 3 lakh, while the Triumph Daytona has a Rs 1 lakh discount, the Ducati Monster has a Rs 2.7 lakh and the Ducati Diavel has a discount up to Rs 2.

“These are unheard of discounts ever in the two-wheeler industry,” Federation of Automobile Dealers (FADA) director-International Affairs Nikunj Sanghi told PTI. He further said that their energy is focused on selling as much stock as possible before the deadline.

Companies such as Hero MotoCorp were the most impacted by the SC verdict due to a large amount of unsold BS IV stocks. The company's lawyer mentioned to the apex court on Tuesday that the decision would result in a Rs 1,600 crore loss for the company.