new delhi entrylevel cars and bikes for long the bread and butter for indian automakers and those which took the country to be among the top automobile markets are conspicuous by their absence at auto expo 2018 industry experts said it is a sign of maturing market more than 75 products were launched at the expo but only 58 of those were in the mass segment the buzz word in the twowheeler industry is scooterisation and premiumisation and in passenger vehicles it is the time to own a hot hatch or a compact suv the share of entry bikes has gone down to 37 of the local twowheeler in the aprildecember period of fiscal 2018 compared with 55 in fy12 in the same period the share of entrylevel scooters which even after coming at a premium of around 20 over motorcycles has doubled to 34 mini cars the likes of the maruti suzuki alto hyundai eon and renault kwid accounted for 179 of the passenger vehicle market in the first nine months of this fiscal year a sixandhalf percentagepoint drop since fy12 just three companies currently hawk products in the mini segment maruti suzuki hyundai and renault for many buyers the entry car is now the premium hatchback or even a compact sedan as much as half the buyers of the maruti suzuki swift and swift dzire are purchasing a car for the first time these models are priced almost double that of the mini cars even for midsize sedans like the maruti suzuki ciaz and honda city about a fifth of the customers are owning a car for the first time in twowheelers more than half of the buyers of hondas shine 125cc motorcycle are firsttime buyers vg ramakrishnan managing director at consultancy firm avanteaum advisors attributed this to rising income levels aspiration and easy access of finance vehicle buying is an aspirational purchase and it is almost a nono to buy a budget or a nofrills car now as income levels rise more and more buyers will upgrade to higherpriced vehicles said ramakrishnan in the twowheeler segment yamaha suzuki and mahindra mahindra have already vacated the mass market space large players such as hero motocorp bajaj auto and tvs motor see a majority of new product action in the 125cc and higher categories hero motocorp managing director pawan munjal told et that the focus of the company is now on scooters within scooters in the 125 cc segment and premium motorcycles the focus is to gain a respectable share in the premium motorcycle segment and a higher market share in scooters he said he though clarified that hero motocorp was not taking its eyes off the commuter segment it is our bread and butter all the money we get from there we put into premium products electrification global business he added the auto expo highlights the trends that the market will see in the coming year and the absence of