Hero MotoCorp Limited

Quarter ended Jun 2026

2026-08-07 Transcript PDF
Sarthak Sikka

Thank you. Danish, we can open the line for questions.

Moderator

The first question comes from the line of Amyn Pirani with JPMorgan.

JPMorgan

Congratulations on a very strong performance in a very tough quarter for the auto industry. My first question was actually on the scooter and EV capacity expansion as well as the model launches that you have done in the last few weeks. So any initial sense of demand on the ground? Are there any order books? Is there low inventory levels for these models because you're going to expand capacity quite rapidly. And historically, you were mentioning that you were supply constrained? So any extra color there would be quite helpful.

Harshavardhan Chitale

Thank you, Amyn. Thank you for your question. So let's begin with VIDA , on EV. We have pretty much nil channel inventory. It's 2 to 3 days depending on region to region. So whatever we are supplying and shipping is actually retailed immediately. S o that gives you an indication of the pent-up demand. So as we now bring on 10,000 more capacity right away this month, I mean, we expect there is a demand there, which will immediately pick that up. Coming to ICE scooters, as you saw, we had an 87% growth year-on-year in our ICE scooters as well. And there, when I look at the channel stock of Xoom, for example, or some variants of Destini, those are running into typically half of what on an average, we normally see in all our

models. So there is also a bit of a depletion of channel stock there. And hence, between VIDA and between all the scooters put together, we've added close to 2,500 per day of extra capacity.

JPMorgan

Okay. That's really great to know and looking forward to the ramp -up of the wholes ale and retails here. My second question is on motorcycles. Now if you look at motorcycles, it looks like especially the bottom half, which is up to 125cc , as a category is still not doing as well as the other categories within 2-wheelers despite GST, you have gained share within the 100cc clearly, but the category doesn't seem to be doing that well. So any color there, any insights as to what is going on and what we can expect over the next few quarters?

Harshavardhan Chitale

No, I think a great observatio n. Yes, within the motorcycle, the category -- by the way, the category 100cc is also growing, but other ranges, 125cc and above are growing faster. And the 100cc, we have outgrown the industry and hence, gained 230 basis points of market share. So we are now at close to 86% market share. So already from a high, we have further gained market share there. But that category in itself is also growing. So that's heartening because the tailwind out of GST creating more affordability, that still continues. And this is still the bike, the first commuter purchase that many of our customers do as they get into the market. The higher categories, of course, as India urbanizes, India becomes richer, those categories are growing faster, and you saw us gain share in those as well.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Gunjan Prithyani with Bank of America.

Bank of America

My first question is just a clarification on the 2,500 capacity per day that you mentioned. Is the understanding right that we're roughly doing about 60,000 - 65,000 right now put together ICE and EVs. This will pretty much double by the second half of the year. Is there any timeline? And is the understanding on the number correct on a monthly basis?

Harshavardhan Chitale

You're right. I think we are right now clocking 65,000 a month, very accurate, in fact. And the capacity addition will more than -- a little more than double.

Bank of America

Okay and any timeline, and when does this, when do we get to this capacity? Is it by the exit quarter of fiscal '27? Any timelines around the expansion?

Harshavardhan Chitale

So 2/3 of this is already done. And the balance 1/3, the second phase of expansion of VIDA, which will come in the last quarter of this financial year.

Bank of America

And we do have that reasonable visibility on demand to be able to ramp it up pretty immediately in terms of production?

Bank of America

Got it. That's good to hear. My question essentially is just shifting gears to the motorcycle business. I think we did take a pretty back-to-back price increases in quarter 4 and quarter 1. Just trying to maybe hear from Ashutosh on what has been the acceptance of these price hikes? And given this also came along with the fuel price inflation that we saw. So how has the customer been ab le to take this sort of inflation? And is there something that we are sort of thinking through in terms of getting the growth. We did see that immediate tailwind in the entry segment when the GST rate cut happened. That seems to be again stabilizing now for some reason. If you can share your thoughts, is it because of the price increases, there's been some impact on the demand or your thoughts on the whole total cost of ownership acceptance at the entry end?

Ashutosh Varma

Sure, Gunjan. Thank you for your question. I mean I'll start off from where Harsh left. In fact, first of all, thanking the customers that in the overall 100cc, our market share now is 86%. Effectively, 9 out of every 10 customers are preferring Hero for the values that we stand for, which is mileage, reliability and trust. So this is a category that we have owned. If you look at specifically 100cc, the likes of Splendor and Passion, there, we've seen category expansion and there, we have seen market share expansion. So I mean, this segment growing from 32% to almost 33%, a little more market share went up by almost 3%. So we have seen a lot of excitement. That's also because of the fact that we have continued to make interventions beyond the product itself. So there h ave been interventions in terms of retail finance. There have been interventions in terms of some of the other affordability measures that we have tried to do. So we are confident that this segment is resilient. As the way things look like from a monsoon p erspective, it's looking the quarter and possibly the leading into festive looking much stronger. We expect this segment to be, to do even better. Yes, we have taken some price increases, but that's also largely because of the confidence that we have in the brands that we feel that it will be able to continue to demand that kind of traction from consumers and the growth in terms of market share is a testimony of that. So confident at that end. I hope I answered your question.

Bank of America

Okay. No, that's helpful. And maybe if I can just get the channel stock that's there on the bikes portfolio, scooters numbers are very clear and the financing penetration, if there is any significant change there?

Ashutosh Varma

So 6 weeks is what we do. And I mean, all this inventory is forward-looking. So of course, we are nearly not there in terms of where we want to be in terms of stocks. And over the next couple of months, you would see some increase that we will have to do to be ready for the festive. So progressing in the right direction. From a retail finance perspective, we saw the quarter becoming stronger. We have seen our retail finance penetration last month jumping to close to 65 -odd percent, and that's strong. There has been easing out in terms of credit , and that has started helping the markets. We believe that as we move into festive, this will become even more helpful.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Binay Singh with Morgan Stanley.

Morgan Stanley

The first question is on the margin front. Looking at Q1, we earlier talked about the 14% to 16% range. Do you think considering cost pressures, you will be able to maintain that range for the year?

Harshavardhan Chitale

So as we indicated, 14% to 16% is our guidance for the midterm. And last quarter, we indicated that with this transitory commodity price -- commodity inflation, there would be some impact in the margin percent. However, our focus would be to mitigate that through volume and focus on absolute EBITDA growth and not just EBITDA percent. So in the midterm, we are confident of going back to it, but not in the short term.

Vivek Anand

Yes. Binay, Vivek here. Just to add, I think clearly, when we look ahead to the current quarter, which is quarter 2 financial year '27, we expect a ma rginal uptick in input cost inflation, right . As I said earlier, we plan to neutralize this by continued improvement of product mix, optimizing our discretionary spends and accelerating cost saving programs. So our primary focus, as Harsh said, will remain on driving EBITDA growth while progressing towards our medium -term EBITDA margin target range of 14% to 16%.

Morgan Stanley

And secondly, like you shared, just to get a sense on the ICE capacity, like the EV capacity, we talked about 15,000 Q1, 30,000 now going to 45,000. So what exactly is the ICE capacity now versus what you see into the festive season? What is the delta change in ICE capacity in the scooter side?

Harshavardhan Chitale

Yes. So ICE capacity increases both on motorcycle and scooters. So I a lso talked of increasing Splendor capacity by 2,000 per day, so almost 50,000 a month, a little over 50,000 a month of increase in Splendor capacity. So that's a capacity increase that has already happened to prepare us well for festival season. Also on the ICE scooter front, we've added 1,500 per day, so which is also done. So that is also done. And then first phase of VIDA is done and the last phase will happen in the quarter 4.

Morgan Stanley

And lastly, just on the EV launches that you talked about, the 2 variants that came up. Could you share as to how would they contribute to the portfolio?

Harshavardhan Chitale

Yes, Kausalya over to you.

Kausalya Nandakumar

Binay, good morning. We launched 2 variants in the first quarter and 1 recently of the 2. The first variant is our long-range variant. It's called the VX2 Plus 4.4 kilowatt with an IDC range of 187 kilometers. We launched it with a campaign called 'Hafte Mein Ek Baar' because the unmatched range that we give allows consumers the flexibility to take charge at just once a week if they so desire.

This also comes with the twin removable battery, giving the flexibility to consumers to charge everywhere. We have just started dispatch in the quarter, and we have crossed about 1,000 vehicle dispatch and are now looking at an uptick on the contribution of this product. The second product that we launched in August, actually, the variant, it's called the VX2 Go 3.1 kilowatt hour, and this offers an IDC range of about 120. And this particular product is catering to a set of consumers who are looking at a product which they have access to charging at their home and office in a more easy manner. It comes with a strong backing of the styling that the VX2 already enjoys, the very favorable styling. Both of these prod ucts will contribute a significant volume going forward. As they stabilize in the forthcoming quarters, we'll share a little bit more in how they are actually blending in. But we are very optimistic with our Ghar Ghar Evooter now with VIDA, we have a range from the 2.2 kilowatt all the way up to the 4.4 kilowatt, allowing consumers complete flexibility of options.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Pramod Kumar with UBS.

Before the question, Harsh, I think congratulations as in for doing the right thing by the customer in terms of revising the HF Deluxe portfolio pricing. And my first question is related to that segment again. Given that how dominant your market share is near monopoly, how do you see this pricing action? If you can help us put this in context as to with the price revisions what you have done, where has the pricing gone to? And what is the expected impact on demand or what it could do to revive the category? Because this category is the only one which is kind of holding you back on market share or pushing you back. So if you can just share your broad thoughts behind the price cut what you did, where it puts the pricing in terms of affordability for the consumer? And how do you see this segment playing out going into the festive season?

Harshavardhan Chitale

I think, thank you, Pramod. Great question. So across the board, in general, we have taken price increases for different variants, and they vary by different variants and different geography. But as we look at tactical opportunities, there are some variants and some geographies where we did take a tactical price cut. So while overall weighted average is a price increase, as Gunjan in earlier question asked, there are some pockets where we did do price correctio n, where we saw an opportunity to boost demand as well as gain share. And as you rightly pointed out, that was in one variant of HF Deluxe. The early signs after we've done that, it has given an immediate boost to demand as more customers are now coming in to the market because that was target that absolute entry-level variant is basically for the first-time buyer, and we wanted to make it more and more accessible to first-time buyers. So we've seen a huge boost in the demand in the first few weeks after th at has gone live. Now how it plays out over the next 3, 4 months leading up to festive, we'll see shortly. But first indications are very, very positive.

Ashutosh Varma

Pramod, to pick up from what Harsh said. Yes. So as Harsh said, yes, the initial traction has been exciting. What we have seen is that we are drawing customers into our showrooms. We've also seen our Splendor portfolio growing stronger since we have introduced this. So we are confident that there is this unaddressable market that we probabl y need to address people who are falling off the mobility. And in certain geographies, we feel this kind of intervention can just grow the category substantially.

And is my understanding right that this category may not be ripe for electrification because the use case is very, very different, very tough, both in terms of the distances driven in a single day by many customers and also the kind of abuse these products take in terms of the load they carry. So in that sense, this categor y is kind of well protected from the electrification risk. But yes, affordability is what you need to make work. Is that understanding right, Ashutosh?

Harshavardhan Chitale

In the near term, yes.

Ashutosh Varma

Yes, so absolutely. I mean, the price poin ts are hugely different from EV versus this category. The use cases are very different. I mean, so, and the markets also, I mean, if you look where these 2 relatively play out are very different markets, right. So we don't feel that there is that risk there. But I mean, so this is reasonably protected that way. We just wanted to expand the market.

And last question on the export bit, Harsh, if you can just help us understand how is the export outlook looking? Because some of our peers at a muc h larger scale are talking about unprecedented growth. So how do you see the export opportunity for yourself given that it's generally positive on margins and ASP and gives the diversification? And also on EVs, is there a possibility that you can fast trac k your capacity expansion if you see demand on the ground remaining robust? Is it possible?

Harshavardhan Chitale

No, no, absolutely. So as you saw, we grew more than 60% in the quarter on exports, and there's still a huge headroom considering still where we are. So we are getting into more markets and introducing more products. So we opened Germany. We did a launch in Germany of our ICE vehicles. We have started now selling in Nepal, our VIDA. So VIDA had launched earlier this month -- earlier in July in Nepal. And so you will see more and more products, more and more geographies continue to get opened and high growth trajectory that you saw in our exports over the last 2 years of 40% plus year-on-year. We are aiming for that kind of growth going forward. And our volume expansion is planned keeping in view growth in exports as well. And also, you're right, with the price realization and the FX gain that it provides, we did see benefit of that also in last quarter. I think we did get a 25 bps out of our FX, higher FX realization. That was a contribution to EBITDA.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Chandramouli Muthiah with Goldman Sachs.

My first question is just around the Delhi proposed EV policy starting FY '28. Just related to your comments on potentially unveiling an electric motorcycle. I just want to understand how

the industry is taking the proposal and then also what the negotiations are? And how important do electric motorcycles become for Hero if this policy were to go through?

Harshavardhan Chitale

Okay. So thanks, Chandramouli, for your question. So we have seen great momentum to EVs in Delhi. So last month, we saw a doubling of our inquiries in EV. We also saw near doubling of our retails of EV. And from fo urth, we now jump to second with 16.7% market share in EV in Delhi. So we are seeing momentum building up. We have increased supplies to Delhi from our side. We have made sure all our dealerships are activated. We have made sure that all our dealer service techs, et cetera, are being trained. So we are preparing our infrastructure. We are also, as you know, building charging network. So we are also increasing charge points from our own side to create a stronger charging infrastructure for customers. Coming to product portfolio, way before this policy goes into effect, we will have a range of motorcycles into the market. And we are progressing well on that, and Kausalya can talk a bit about that.

Kausalya Nandakumar

Chandramouli, thanks for the question. We had unveiled our motorcycle platforms last year in EICMA in 2025. We continue to be committed to developing customer -centric, customer - oriented motorcycles. Like Harsh said, we are obviously making sure that Delhi citizens and consumers have the power of choice as they walk into our showrooms on the full range of the EV scooters as well as the forthcoming motorcycle platforms that will be launched. And so we will have a full stack of available products to cater to every need before the policy comes fully into action.

Got it. That's helpful. Second question is just around the PLI comment that you had shared earlier that 60% of the electric 2-wheeler portfolio is now eligible for PLI. So just to clarify, what is the current percentage of company revenue that's coming from EVs? And roughly where you see that going with this additional capacity that's coming through going forward?

Vivek Anand

So as I talked about, PLI this quarter, we've got a benefit of -- a PLI benefit of INR48 crores, which is covering 60% of our business. And we expect that this benefit will cover almost all our products by end of December, right . So during the full year, we should have the entire EV portfolio under PLI benefit, right. So EV revenue last quarter is aroun d INR660 crores, right. So that's almost translating to on a INR12,999 crores, it's almost 5%, right . So that's the percentage contribution coming from EV during quarter 1, right. So our plan is to aggressively grow this business. So you will see in the rest of the year, the contribution from EV business as a contribution to the total revenue is likely to really move up.

Got it. That's helpful. And just last question relates to comments you had made on profitability. So I just want to understand, you did mention that a couple of your EV models are now gross margin positive. So I just want to understand on an EBITDA margin basis for the EV portfolio, how far we might be from breakeven? And if the PLI comes through on the full portfolio towards the end of the year, what it potentially implies for full year EBITDA margin on the EV portfolio?

Vivek Anand

So Chandra, so we are working on our 4 -pillar strategy to achieve self -sustainability in EV business, right. So as I had talked in the past, so clearly, PLI is one big contributor. I talked about we are 60%. Hopefully, by December, this should become 100%. So that's one thing. As we move forward, we'll continue to improve our profitability of EV business. Second is scale. So we've launched some products and some of the products have already started to be profitable, right. We are scaling up. So as we scale up our capacity and as we scale up, we will continue to get operating leverage that will help improve our profitability. We are working on BOM cost reduction. We are driving efficiencies. We are working on LEAP savings and better unit economics for new launches, and we are taking calibrated price increase in line with the industry.

Harshavardhan Chitale

Maybe Kausalya, you can talk about non-product revenue, which has also started kicking in.

Kausalya Nandakumar

Yes. So Chandra, just as a follow -up, of course, the price increase is as calibrated, keeping in mind how consumers are looking at the products and making sure they remain access ible. But we have a slew of now new offerings. We continue to improve accessibility through our Battery as a Service offering across the portfolio that allows access point to consumers who wish to own an EV. We also are now amping up our focus on the reven ue from connected services. We call it the VIDA Edge program and consumers can avail that benefit as a paywall benefit. And then once they subscribe to the services, we unlock a slew of connected features for them. In addition, we are bringing highly focused products like extended warranty and other such value-added services for consumers to pick and choose from a bouquet of offerings. All of this now will supplement how consumers can actually use their EVs more effectively with a lot more confidence as well as bring additional revenue into the VIDA business.

Vivek Anand

Yes. And just to sum up, we continuously improve our unit economics of our EV portfolio. So just to give some numbers, this quarter, the EBITDA loss has come down from almost INR50,000 from previous quarter to INR40,000. So it's on an improvement trajectory as we really move forward.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Kapil Singh with Nomura.

On the EVs, firstly, on the motorcycles, can you talk about what could be the timelines by which the platform would be ready? And in terms of segments, which are the segments which, where you see the adoption happening first? And how would the EV platform be different from the , EV motorcycle platform be different from the scooter platform? Just anything you can share in terms of as a concept?

Kausalya Nandakumar

Kapil, good morning. Kausalya here. We had talked a little bit about these 2 product platforms in EICMA 2025. So I'll reaffirm some of the pointers from there. The first concept that we talked about was Project Ubex.

It's our code name for a product that is suited very much for urban mobility. This is a neo-naked motorcycle concept, which we had revealed. This will be a good performance motorcycle for a segment of consumers who are looking for both the thrill and acceleration of a motorcycle on an EV platform, but also extremely city and road friendly. That's the first platform, Ubex, and you will hear more about this product as we come closer to launch. The second was our collaboration platform with Zero Motorcycles of USA, which is a high - performance motorcycle. It's codenamed VXZ internally. This is coming into the much high - performance category. This is our aspirational motorcycle catering to those consumers who are looking for adventure, who are looking for a motorcycle that has a true outperformance need. So these 2 motorcycle concepts are already in display, and we've shared a lot more details about these products as they come closer. And we continue to innovate and bring products into the market that consumers need. These will be new platforms. While we do take a lot of learnings from our scooter platform, the motorcycle platform now caters to the needs of a motorcycle consumer. And therefore, these are new platforms that we are developing with learnings from the scooter platform, but with technology that is suited to what a motorcycle consumer is actually looking for in terms of performance, rideability, gradability and range.

Any color you can throw on the timelines? Is anything coming this year, next year or it will be later?

Kausalya Nandakumar

It's not this year. We will be looking at products coming in from the next year.

Okay. Sure. And the second question was on the EV profitab ility. Any broad range in terms of where the breakeven volumes will land? And if you have done any cost benchmarking with competition, what are the areas where there are gaps which you need to bridge? Is it mainly scale? Or is it mainly the cost of the platform? Just any thoughts on this would be helpful.

Kausalya Nandakumar

Yes. So Kapil, I think a couple of elements. I'm just going back to what Vivek already shared. There are 4 major levers that we focus on, on profitability. The first, of course, is sca le. We've just ramped up from the 15,000 mark to this quarter looking at close to 30,000. The scale gives us a lot of leverage, which will now start kicking in across the portfolio. On the BOM cost in specific, this is a continuous activity. Internally, we've shared what we call the LEAP savings program. This is a relentless focus on how we actually look at cost and design for cost. We have some unique value proposition like the removable battery that gives consumers a power of choice in terms of charging. And therefore, we believe our designs are unique and tailored to consumer need. But every quarter, we are seeing an improvement because we are putting all 4 levers at the same time, and we should continue on our trajectory to look positive by the end of the year.

Harshavardhan Chitale

We see a strong momentum, not just quarter 1, but also July, and the momentum continues strong. So from 67% growth in quarter 1 for the industry, industry grew at more than 80% in July. So I think the growth is strong, and there are no indica tions of the momentum slowing down yet...

My question was on the 2-wheeler industry, not on EVs.

Harshavardhan Chitale

I'm sorry. Okay. So 2 -wheeler industry, quarter 1, the total industry ICE plus EV put together grew about 14% in quarter 1. We see similar trajectory for quarter 2, looking at how July has started. H2, you're right, does have a base effect of big jump that happened in sales in H2 last year post GST. Hence, from a base perspective, the year -on-year growth will be lower, but the way momentum is, we expect still a positive growth in H2. And right now, plans are towards full year of approaching double digit as an industry growth.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Raghunandhan N. L. with Nuvama Research.

Nuvama Research

Congratulations team on strong numbers and also for the comprehensive investor presentation. Thanks to the team and Sarthak. Firstly, can you talk about upcoming models with regards to premium motorcycle? There are expectations of models like XPu lse 421, XMR 250. Your thoughts there will be helpful.

Anuj Dua

This is Anuj. There are a lot of models which are in working. You rightly said 2 of the flagship ones. In the next 12 months, you'll see many more coming up. Market will be fully lined up with these models. You'll see a few starting from this festive itself and going up to next few quarters as well. We'll see a lot of action in the premium segment. We are fully aware that customers love the brand XPulse, not just in India, but globally as well.

Nuvama Research

Noted, sir. So before the festive, these products should be available, sir?

Anuj Dua

A few of the refreshes will be. And then some of the larger full body change models we'll see in the upcoming quarters.

Harshavardhan Chitale

But not the 2 that you mentioned, they won't be before festive, but there are a few others that will, in the premium range that will get launched before festive.

Nuvama Research

Sir, secondly, on the PAM revenue, the revenue had grown about 5% last year. And this year, we have started the growth with 30%. Has the company been successful in expanding penetration, taking market share from the gray market? Can there be a 20% kind of a growth in FY '27?

Ashutosh Varma

So Raghu, you're right. I mean, strong gr owth close to 25% and beyond. We see the trend similarly in July as well. A mix of actions that has led to it. One, of course, is the expanded reach. So we have penetrated deeper with formats. There's a lot of operational excellence -- efficiency initiatives that are being carried out. So larger SKU coverage, new parts groups, new line of businesses doing well. So I mean, parts, while we are good, we believe there is a lot more

to do. We are still about scratching the surface and hence, a lot of headroom. A nd especially, I mean, the growth that we see coming in is with the new lines of businesses that are, that have started doing exceptionally well.

Harshavardhan Chitale

And Raghu, as you rightly pointed out, there is a growth by eating into gray market, but there is also growth through accessories, which increasingly we see traction as our VIDA range increases and premium range increases. Also in the parts business, there is a lot of growth coming out of our exports business. So, and that's the reason why t he new investment of GPC 2.0 that we announced with a CapEx of INR750 crores. So that pretty much more than doubles our capacity to handle parts business.

Nuvama Research

One last question on the commodity cost impact that is expected to be small in Q2, is 50 basis point increase Q-o-Q a fair estimate? Around 4% price hike has been taken so far. Would you need further price hikes? Or would you be focusing on cost savings?

Vivek Anand

So Raghu, I think, so we are -- as I said, we are expecting a marginal uptick in input cost inflation, which we plan to neutralize by continued improvement of product mix and optimizing our discretionary spends and accelerating cost saving programs, right . So we are confident of mitigating the impact of any potential mate rial price inflation during the quarter through these initiatives.

Moderator

Our next question comes from the line of Sonal Gupta with HSBC Mutual Fund.

HSBC Mutual Fund

Just had a couple of questions around this, I mean, again, on the pricing. So what has be en the price increases that we've taken, right? Like for this quarter and my understand -- and then in July, what sort of percentage price increase have we taken?

Harshavardhan Chitale

So we have taken so far about cumulatively from, over the last 3, 4 mo nths, 4.5% of a blended average price increase. So on different models in different months. So that's why I gave you a blended 4.5%. And this is on the ICE part. On EV, even higher increase. In fact, it's closer to double-digit price increase. But part of that is actually price increase also with the differentiation with more functionality getting offered there. So there, the price increase in terms of per unit price is in double -- early double digits.

HSBC Mutual Fund

Got it, sir. So just this 4.5% is since t he beginning of the year or this is just April and July put together?

Harshavardhan Chitale

This is from February, end of February.

HSBC Mutual Fund

End of Feb. So yes, so, and this, would this include any July price increases as well? Or this is...

Harshavardhan Chitale

In July, we did a marginal price increase. As Vivek mentioned, we expect marginal cost increase on commodity, which is already getting fully mitigated through our mix and LEAP savings and optimizations of cost. But in anticipation, we also to ok a marginal price increase in July in our ICE as well as -- in ICE.

HSBC Mutual Fund

Got it. No. So my question was really around, I mean, like these price increases, I mean, some of it, obviously, given the unprecedented cost inflation is warranted. But I m ean, like at what, given that our category itself, our core category has been sort of struggling in terms of growth. And if I look at your overall market share on a year-on-year basis, VAHAN market share in Q1 has dropped like 150 basis points. At what point do you think that we'll calibrate this and focus more on driving growth rather than just, I mean, like taking price increases. So I'm just wondering that at what point do you think that you've taken, that more -- we cannot pass on more to the consumer in the shorter term?

Harshavardhan Chitale

No. So I think we continue to remain focused on growth, and that's what you saw in 23% growth in the volume growth in the quarter and so on. And hence, as Vivek said, it's calibrated price increase. We've not passed on all of the commodity cost. And there are areas where we've passed on less, there are areas we passed on more. And on some absolute entry-level variants where we wanted to expand the market and bring new customers into the market, we've even taken a calibrated cost reduction -- price reduction for some geographies. And that was a question earlier from Pramod on HF in some states. And that is immediately seeing a jump in our volumes in that category. So our focus, to answer your question, continues to remain on driving volume growth and hence, calibrating price increases appropriately.

Moderator

Ladies and gentlemen, due to the time constraint, that was the last question for today. I now hand the conference over to the management for the closing remark s. Thank you, and over to you, team.

Harshavardhan Chitale

Thank you for joining us today. There are more details available on our website where we've uploaded for the first time our quarterly results presentation that gives a little more color. Please do take a look at it. And if there are any follow -up questions, do write to us, and we would get back to you.

Vivek Anand

Thank you.

Moderator

Thank you so much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Equirus Securities, this conclude s today's conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect.