In the last fiscal year, around 4,326 motorcycles and scooters were registered at Gandaki Zonal Transport Office, compared with 3,100 of the preceding year, pushing up the market size of two-wheelers in the city to around one billion rupees.
Motorcycle traders told myrepublica.com that a large chunk of their customers consist of college students. “Soon after they graduate from high school, they ask their parents to buy them bikes,” Dilendra Nath Shrestha, manager of one of the authorized resellers of Hero Honda, said. “Most of the students even refuse to go to college without a motorcycle. This has become a normal practice here.”
Due to rise in the sales of two-wheelers, more and more bike showrooms are emerging in Pokhara. Today, this city boasts of more than a dozen showrooms of leading brands and all of them are competing fiercely to improve their market share.
According to figures, Bajaj´s bikes are the most popular among the Pokhara denizens. According to Gyanmani Adhikari of Ichchha Shakti Automobile, one of the authorized resellers of Bajaj bikes, around 1,200 Bajaj bikes were sold in Pokhara in the last fiscal year, of which 845 were of Pulsar series.
Yamaha´s latest model of bike called the FZ has also gained widespread popularity in this lake city. Bishnu Timilsina of Bishwakarma Auto Works, one of the authorized resellers of Yamaha bikes, said the company was able to sell 700 FZ bikes in Pokhara since mid-February.
Hero Honda is also satisfied with its performance in Pokhara. “We sell around 1,000 units of Hero Honda bikes every year,” Shrestha said. “We are pretty happy with this figure."
Life on wheels