Nepal's motorcycle market reaches a four-year high, and four in five are assembled at home
Imports of motorcycles and scooters rose 30% last fiscal year to 277,291 units, most as kits for local plants, and the new year has started at a similar pace with electric scooters gaining.
Nepal's market for motorcycles and scooters has recovered to its strongest level in four years, and most of the machines are now put together in the country. Imports rose 30% in the 2025/26 fiscal year to 277,291 units, excluding mopeds, according to Department of Customs data reported by MeroAuto in July. That was 63,996 more than the 213,295 imported in 2024/25 and the highest volume since 2021/22, when 282,099 units came in.
Kits, not finished bikes
Of last year's total, 227,834 units, or 82.16%, arrived as completely knocked-down kits for local assembly, MeroAuto reported, against 49,457 fully built units. The shift follows a decade of assembly plants built to take advantage of lower duties on parts than on finished vehicles.
Seven brands are now assembled in Nepal: Royal Enfield, Bajaj, TVS, Yamaha, Hero, Honda and CFMoto, according to MeroAuto. Each works through a local partner. Kantipur listed the assemblers in 2024 as Hulas Auto Craft for Bajaj, Jagdamba Auto Group for TVS, Morang Auto Works for Yamaha, Himal Moto for Honda, NGM Engineering and Sales for Hero, and Triveni Group for Royal Enfield. Honda's plant in Bhairahawa, opened in March 2024, cost Rs 1.5bn and can produce 100,000 motorcycles and scooters a year, NepalDrives reported.
A large tax base
The two-wheeler trade matters to the treasury as much as to buyers. Last year's imports were worth Rs 36.01bn and generated Rs 32.97bn in government revenue, MeroAuto reported, so the state collected almost as much as the declared value of the imports. Over the first 11 months of the year, petrol models accounted for Rs 28.93bn of Rs 29.74bn in revenue and electric two-wheelers only Rs 811.23m, Himal Press reported, reflecting the much lower tax on electric vehicles.
India dominates supply of petrol machines, with Rs 29.57bn of imports in the 11 months against Rs 319.97m from China, according to Himal Press. In electric two-wheelers China led by volume with 14,554 units, while India led by value with 6,695 units worth Rs 1.33bn.
Electric scooters gain ground
The new fiscal year has opened at a similar pace. In Shrawan and Bhadra, mid-July to mid-September, Nepal imported 66,840 two-wheelers worth Rs 9.72bn and collected Rs 8.61bn in revenue, MeroAuto reported on 29 September. Electric models made up 14.47% of the total, 9,962 units, of which 9,887 were scooters and only 75 motorcycles.
That is a higher share than last year, when 26,115 of 277,291 units, under a tenth, were electric. The electric market is almost entirely scooters for city commuting; electric motorcycles remain a novelty. The broader move towards electric vehicles, and the tax changes affecting cars, are covered in our report on the electric car boom.
Customs figures for the third month of the fiscal year, covering the Dashain and Tihar buying season, will show whether the pace of the first two months holds. The share of electric scooters is the number to follow: a rising share means lower revenue per unit for the government, and more demand for charging in Kathmandu and other cities.
How this story was made: researched and written by The Standard’s desk with AI assistance, from the published reporting and official data credited below, and checked against those sources. Our standards.
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