Bajaj Geared-Scooter Sales Look Up

Bajaj Auto has registered a marginal increase in geared scooter sales in May for the first time in several months, though sales volumes are still a shadow of that two years back.

The company, which is the largest manufacturer of geared scooters in the world, sold 44,923 scooters in May 2001 against 44,563 units in May 2000.

The arrest in the decline of geared scooter sales has come barely a month after it registered one of its worst-ever performances, primarily due to the drastic fall in geared scooter sales.

The company had posted a 23 per cent decline in geared scooter sales in April 2001 over April 2000.

In a press release, R L Ravichandran, Bajaj Auto vice-president (business development & marketing), said the company's recently launched economy version of geared scooters were responsible for their sustained volumes since January.

The company registered a seven per cent growth in overall two, and three-wheeler sales in May to 1,12,163 units. In the high-growth motorcycles segment, the company has registered a 42 per cent growth to touch 43,260 vehicles against 30,440 units last year.

Bajaj Auto, which has a licence agreement with Japanese motorcycle major Kawasaki, currently offers Boxer in the low-end motorcycle segment, Caliber in the mid-end segment and Eliminator in the high-end.

However, the company's sales in the ungeared scooters and step-through segments continued to shrink, with a 26.2 per cent and a 41.6 per cent decline, respectively, in May.

The company sold 5,149 units of ungeared scooters and 6,769 units of step-throughs during the month, against 6,982 ungeared scooters and 11.605 step-throughs a year ago. Also, its highly profitable three-wheelers registered a 14.4 per cent slide to touch 12,062 units.