After dominating the Indian two-wheeler market for almost one-and-a-half decades, Hero MotoCorp is now witnessing a shake-up, with its Japanese arch-rival Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India cementing its position as the top-selling player in the retail market for the fourth consecutive month in October, intensifying the race for the market leader’s slot in calendar year (CY) 2026. Despite this, Hero is still ahead of Honda so far this calendar year by around 89,000 units, according to the Vahan dashboard on Saturday.
Interestingly, the difference between market leader Hero and Honda in the entire CY 2025 was 647,000 units, showing that Honda has already narrowed the gap. In the festive season, too, Honda seems to be marching ahead of Hero, driven by its strong scooter franchise and a change in entry-level market dynamics. According to data shared by the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada), Honda led sales in October with 637,630 units and a market share of 27 per cent. Hero MotoCorp’s sales, meanwhile, dipped sharply on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis to 598,433 units from over 1 million units in October 2025, down 41 per cent, or 408,000 units. The Indian major’s market share also dipped from 31 per cent in October 2025 to 26 per cent in October 2026.
It should be noted that although Honda’s market share was 26 per cent last year, the company also witnessed a 25 per cent decline in sales, or 213,000 units, compared with last October. “Our festival period actually runs over a 100-day period. And festival to date, the way we are driving our festival performance, we’ve seen growth of 24 per cent. “Otherwise, one gets into this conundrum that right at the start of Navratra last year, the new GST came into effect and there was a huge amount of pent-up demand that then immediately resulted in sales last year, and that will skew the base.
Hence, looking into this broader period gives us
Hence, looking into this broader period gives us a good indication, and we’ve seen a 24 per cent growth on this broader definition of festival. And there, we have not seen any share erosion,” said Hero MotoCorp chief executive officer Harshavardhan Chitale, addressing an earnings call late last month. The dip in monthly numbers for both industry majors was due to the higher base last October, as Navratri and Deepawali fell in the same month, over and above the pent-up demand released after the GST 2.0 rate cuts of September 22, 2025. “Honda has out-registered Hero for four straight months, and it isn’t just festival timing.
Between January and September, Honda’s registrations grew 25 per cent against Hero’s 18 per cent, halving Hero’s lead to 180,000 units,” said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst, Envirocatalysts. Dahiya said this was also due to changing market dynamics in rural India. “Hero is not so much losing customers as watching its customers lose purchasing power.
Rural, entry-level 100cc buyers have been squeezed by a weak monsoon, costlier fuel and higher rural inflation, while salaried buyers in cities, the South and the West are moving up to scooters and 125cc bikes, where Honda is strongest. November’s festive sales will show how deep the shift runs,” Dahiya said. Before the 2011 split between the two industry majors, the Hero Honda joint venture was the market leader.
After that, Hero dominated the Indian market, with Honda occasionally rising to the top slot in September 2022, September 2024 and July 2025.However, Honda has been increasing the gap since it took over the top slot in July this year. In July, the difference between the two players was 29,025 units, with Honda steadily increasing its lead in August (33,346 units), September (34,509 units) and October (39,197 units). “Honda is now clearly establishing its position as the number one player,” said Sai Giridhar, president, Fada.
