Bajaj Auto is the Big Daddy of Three Wheeler segment in the Indian Market. Bajaj sold 3,64,817 three wheelers in Domestic market and exported 2,96,700 units in FY2020.
India is the largest market for three-wheeler vehicles in terms of both sales and production across the globe. The advent of safer, faster and price-effective 4-wheeled counterparts (say Tata Ace) did raise some serious questions on the sustainability of the industry in the recent years. Also government’s concern over safety and fuel usage has been worrying the manufacturers. However, 3 wheelers remained to be an affordable means of short-to-medium public transportation and last mile connectivity for goods transportation. The significance was well identified by Taxi Aggregators (Ola, etc) and have added autos as well under their offering.
In FY2019-20, around 6,36,569 3-wheelers (load+passenger) were sold in India and 5,02,169 were exported. Three-wheelers produced in India are also exported to countries such as South Asia, Middle East & Africa and Europe.
We have categorized the sales under Passenger & Load segments to highlight better clarity and extract deeper insights on the respective OEM’s performance –
Passenger Segment:
Even 3 wheeler segment wasn’t shielded from the slowdown and corona effect in the automobile industry. 3 Wheeler Passenger segment saw a dip of -8% in FY20 v/s FY19.
Bajaj Auto was the clear market leader in the 3 wheeler Passenger category and Bajaj commanded a market share of 63.8% in FY2020.
Piaggio came second in the list and was able to cross 20% Market Share in FY20. Piaggio+Bajaj had a lions share of 83.9% in 3 wheeler passenger segment!
Mahindra Electric made excellent progress in FY20 and sold over 4k passenger 3 wheelers in FY20. It even gained a Market Share of 0.8% and looks to go even higher in FY21.
Bajaj has been excelling in exports too and had market share of ~60% in exports. However; the export volumes take a huge beating in FY2020 and degrew -22% in previous fiscal.
Bajaj’s loss was TVS’s gain! TVS gained almost 7.8% Market Share; while Bajaj Auto lost 7.7% market share in exports.
Bajaj exports three-wheeler vehicles to approximately 36 countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Egypt, Iran, Philippines, Uganda, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo, Kenya, Angola, Tanzania, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. Bajaj has three-wheelers in all fuel variants – diesel, CNG, LPG and petrol. Other major markets in Asia Pacific are China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Middle East & Africa and Latin America are also major three-wheeler markets. Turkey, Iran, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina are major markets in this region. Most the regions depend on export of three-wheeler vehicles from manufactures in India and China. (source)
Load / Goods Segment:
While Bajaj has clear majority in the passenger segment; Piaggio has dominance in Load Segment. Piaggio has a market share of 42%; while Bajaj had a market share of 27% in FY2020.
Bajaj went extremely aggressive and gained 3.2% in FY2020 v/s FY2019! This was possible as Bajaj recorded one the lowest degrowth in last FY. Do note that the overall segment fell by -13% YoY and Bajaj registered drop of -2%.
Three Wheeler Load exports in terms of absolute numbers is less. Only 6,319 units were exported in FY2020. However; the segment exports increased 2% in FY20 v/s FY19.
Piaggio has dominance in load segment exports too. Piaggio spruced up exports by 35% YoY and was able to increase the Market Share to over 51% in FY2020.