New Delhi, June 29: Two-wheelers lost their growth momentum during the first two months of this fiscal recording a marginal 1.5 per cent rise in sales. This was primarily because of a modest increase in motorcycle demand even as scooters and mopeds continued to ride into negative territory, data compiled by the society of Indian automobile manufacturers showed.

A total of 8.20 lakh two-wheelers were sold in the country during April-May 2003 against 8.08 lakh units in the same period last year, the data showed.

Motorcycles, which witnessed strong growth till recent months, posted a modest 6.7 per cent increase to 6.50 lakh units (6.10 lakh units during April-May 2002-03).
India's biggest motorcycle maker, Hero Honda Motors recorded a 5.4 per cent rise to 2.95 lakh units while its closest rival, Bajaj Auto, posted a 2.15 per cent growth at 1.53 lakh units.
Motorcycle sales of Chennai-based TVS Motor Company went up by 10.4 per cent to 1.20 lakh units, propelled by its 110cc motorcycle 'victor'.
Sales of Kanpur-based LML soared by 689.2 per cent to 38,514 units on the back of strong demand for the recently-launched 110cc motorcycle 'freedom'.
However, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamaha Motor of Japan suffered a 42.1 per cent drop to 32,147 units.
Motorcycle sales of Kinetic Engineering and Royal Enfield also registered decline of 18 and 12.7 per cent to 5,015 and 3,585 units respectively.

Bureau Report