Bajaj Auto to arrest falling sales in state with new RE Compact

Company is by far the largest three-wheeler player in the state with a 93% market share

As the going gets tough for three wheeler makers like Bajaj Auto with a general slowdown in the market as well as rising CNG prices, the company today launched the new RE Compact three-wheeler in the Gujarat market today, hoping to revive the dwindling sales.

The company is by far the largest three-wheeler player in the state with a 93 per cent market share. Sales, however, have been falling since October last year, as CNG prices in Gujarat went on an upward spiral. It has now touched Rs 65 per kg in Gujarat, hardly a couple of rupees short of petrol prices here.

C K Rao, vice president, market development, commercial vehicles, Bajaj Auto Ltd said, "Before October 2012, we were roughly selling around 3,300 three-wheelers here per month, then it started dipping, and now it is around 2,000 units per month."

With the new launch Bajaj is hoping to revive its dwindling sales. It had sold around 38,000 units in Gujarat last year, and hopes to end the current fiscal around the same level.

"Gujarat is our biggest market for three-wheelers as far as three wheelers are concerned, it is the third largest in the country as far as the industry is concerned," informed R C Maheshwari, president, commercial vehicles, Bajaj Auto. He further added that the company has taken care to improve the fuel efficiency of the new RE Compact apart from other technical changes that will improve performance and reduce maintenance cost.

The new vehicle, which costs almost the same as the old RE (around Rs 1500-2500 higher), will offer 10 per cent more fuel efficiency, the company claimed. If one drives the vehicle on an average for 150-200 km per day, the operator or owner would end up saving anything between Rs 15,000-20,000 per year, Maheshwari said. The new RE Compact would cost around Rs 1.05 lakh ex-showroom in Gujarat for the two-stroke petrol variant, while the two-stroke CNG version would cost around Rs 1.29 lakh. The company had sold around 225,000 units in the domestic market last fiscal, and exported around 300,000 units, Rao informed.