Bajaj Auto bike sales down by 8% in May

Sales of Pune-based Bajaj Auto, India's second largest bike maker continued to slide as the company announced today a decline of 8 per cent in sales of motorcycles for the month of May.

The decline comes at a time when rivals Hero Honda posted a more than 20 per cent growth in the same month. Bajaj Auto marked sales of 165,049 units in May as against 179,649 units sold in the corresponding month of the previous year.

"The new Pulsar 150 and 180 have been very well received and consequently the production of the Pulsars is being progressively increased to 50,000 units per month", said Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto in a statement.

"Aiding this volume build-up would be the launch of the fastest Pulsar yet in June 2009, also expected to be the fastest motorcycle made in India", he added.

Exports of the company also witnessed a dip of 3 per cent at 58,682 units as compared to 60,215 units posted in the same month a year ago.