Even as India witnessed an 18% drop in Sales of 2W during FY 20-21 compared to the previous year, Classic Legends, which owns two marquee brands Yezdi and Jawa seem to be on a roll. The company plans to launch the much celebrated “Yezdi” brand once again in India even as the country scrambles to come to terms with the pandemic impact.
Classic Legends doesn’t report it’s sales numbers to the Industry like most other OEMs. However, as per market sources, retail sales of Jawa declined between 25-30%, more than the average fall of overall 2W as well as the premium motorcycles segment.
Vehicles with more than 150cc and / or which are priced above Rs. 1.50 lakhs are considered premium motorcycles in the country. The segment leader is an undisputed Royal Enfield with over 6,00,000 units sold annually (it was a tenth of this a decade ago!). Other International and Indian brands in this space such as Harley Davidson, BMW, Ducati, Benelli among others have a very small market share.
After it’s launch in 2018, the company informed that it has made and sold over 50,000 units of Jawa, the customers mostly being cult-followers of the once popular brand in the 1980s. The company set-up over 100+ Dealerships across India in no time and had a rousing welcome from patrons, with the booking to delivery period ranging between 3-4 months.
However, with the pandemic taking a huge toll on mobility as a business, most commuter segment brands have faced the heat. The customer segment who prefer to buy a sub-Rs.60K 2W have deferred their plans to upgrade or purchase a new vehicle with so much of business uncertainty due to the pandemic.
It would be interesting to see how Yezdi plans to reach out to the premium segment, which has been extra cautious, especially during and after the second wave which started in April ‘21. The segment considered the most resilient is starting to show stress.
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