LAHORE: Sales of motorcycles with engine capacity of 100cc and 125cc and above jumped significantly by 34 and 20 per cent at the cost of motorbikes of smaller engine size during the last fiscal year, indicating changing consumer preferences.

Sales of motorbikes with engine capacity of 70cc with a market share of 80pc declined almost 10pc last year.

“The change in the consumer preferences could be attributed to increase in disposable income of people working in the informal sector as well as smallholder farmers.

There also is strong possibility that many small car owners are buying motorbikes as availability of cheaper CNG is decreasing and the price of petrol is rising.

Such people falling in the middle, fixed income category can afford to pay the upfront cost of a small car, though they cannot afford the high recurring cost of fuel (petrol),” argues Afaq Ahmed, who heads research and development wing of Atlas Honda.He, however, underlined the need for a proper study to determine the factors that are making people to switch to big engine size motorcycles.

He said the motorcycle industry is “repositioning” itself with the changing trends in the consumer behaviour.

“The consumers will go for both luxury motorbikes of above 250cc and trendy scooties once the per capita income crosses the $3000 barrier,” he said.

“This kind of shift in consumer preferences and change of ‘necessity market’ into somewhat luxury or sports market takes place only with economic development and growth in disposable incomes,” he said.

India is already witnessing this shift in consumer preferences where motorbikes with engine capacity of 100-150cc increased their market share from 48pc in 2005 to 65pc in 2012 and the premium level two-wheelers enhanced their share from nine per cent to 17pc in the same period.

The motorcycle sales have soared phenomenally from just 100,000 units to 1.55 million last year.

The sales peaked to more than 1.6 million units a few years ago to drop slightly in the following years.

At present the industry is looking for increasing its sales to two million units a year.

Afaq called for protecting the domestic industry by discouraging CBU imports as China and India had done by implementing 90-100pc duty on CBU imports.