Car Parts Sales: car-less driving isn’t half as thrilling for battery firms - No cars, no life. Sales of two-wheeled vehicles may continue to grow at a healthy pace, but the cars behind, the spark seems to have left the life of the battery manufacturers ... uh, toplines.
"Batteries for two-wheelers account for only 10% of our total sales. Segment, despite all the growth you can get for a period of slow economic growth can not offset the slowdown in the passenger car category," said PK Kataky, Director Automotive, Exide Industries, DNA.
Exide is the market leader in automotive batteries, a segment that represents almost half of total battery sales in the country, according to unconfirmed estimates.
The entire fiscal year, sales of two-wheeled vehicles has increased to 26% of the 11,790,305 units, the back of car sales in the DAT, which has grown by over 29%.
But so far this tax, the sale of four wheels - the main supporter of the sale of the battery - it does not matter. Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam), sees the two-wheeler sales to grow 15-18% this fiscal, as he prepares to reduce its projected four wheels is increasing fuel bills and rising rates of car financing.
In May, Hero Honda Motors reported a 14.7% growth in sales of 500,234 units, while its rivals Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Co. saw its sales increase by 18% to 181,891 units and 3,17,989 units respectively, the overall segment sales increased 14.5% to 1,072,287 units.
Car sales, however, recorded the slowest pace in 24 months in May, according to SIAM. At 158,817 units, domestic sales of passenger cars increased by only 7%. Output of commercial vehicles and medium and heavy vehicles with three wheels, also slowed, with sales up 8.62% and 8.6% to 24,863 units and 35,991 units respectively.
No wonder the battery manufacturers feel grumpy.
"Changing the battery in the wheel is almost once every two years. The cost of the battery is too much about ¤ 3600. In the two-wheeled vehicle with starting the habit is a much more because the operation of the battery is different.
Cost is also RS1, 000 battery, "said Ramana Prasad Alam, Amara Raja Batteries charge" of automotive batteries.
Manufacturers of batteries, two-wheeled push-start model requires a different type of batteries that are more critical in nature and require support services in quality from start to traditional models.
The manufacturing process for the launch and push-starting varieties is not very different, said Exide is Kataky. "We need some minor changes in the configuration to move the kick-off at the push start models."
