by amit pandaythe domestic wholesales of twowheelers declined 1319 yearonyear during the coronavirus pandemichit fy21 even as the demand recovery in three out of four quarters last fiscal failed to lift the annual volumes points out the data released by the society of indian automobile manufacturers siam on april 12according to the industry data the twowheeler domestic volumes were at 15119387 units during fy21 against 17416432 units a year ago which suggests that the manufacturers lost cumulative wholesales of more than 2 million units despite clocking yoy growth during the september december and march quarters last fiscal advt the twowheeler domestic volumes grew 017 1337 and 2429 yoy during the september december and march quarters respectively during fy21several market analysts attribute the annual volume loss in spite of the growth in h2 fy21 to the complete nationwide lockdown imposed for about 2 months last year along with a series of regional lockdowns that stretched through h1 fy21the yoy decline in the twowheeler wholesales however was sharper at 18 in fy20 on the back of liquidity crunch rising vehicle prices and an overall economic slowdown notably the twowheeler industry has seen its domestic wholesale volumes slide from a peak of over 21 million units losing more than 6 million units over the last two financial years alonesoftening urban demandscooters which contributed more than onethird of the overall twowheeler sales in india until 2 years ago recorded a share of less than 30 during fy21 according to the siam data scooter sales stood at 44 million units during the last fiscal dropping almost 20 yoythe three largest scooter manufacturers honda motorcycle scooter india hmsi tvs motor company and suzuki motorcycle india have lost substantial volumes last fiscal market share fy21 while hmsi also indias largest scooter manufacturer saw its scooter sales dropping from 31 million units in fy20 to 23 million units last fiscal tvs motor company and suzuki motorcycle india sold 829117 units down from 927979 units sold in fy20 and 494157 units down 24 yoy respectively advt market share fy20since scooters are largely an urban phenomenon declining share in the overall twowheeler market represents a dip in its demand in the urban and semiurban markets this can be attributed to two factors work from home practice that does not require people to commute to work and secondly negative consumer sentiments among the middleclass buyers who have been holding back their investments amid the coronavirus scare said a senior executive at a leading scooter manufacturing company requesting anonymityheavy exposure to scooters incurs market share loss for hondaowing to heavy exposure to the scooter segment hmsi has further lost its market share in fy21 the company which saw scooters contributing about twothirds of its total sales in fy18 has lost its market share from a peak of almost 29 in fy18 to 27 in fy20 and 2558 in fy21triggered by a sharp fall of 26 in scooter sales alone honda sold a total of 386 million units including bikes in