Bajaj plans more products from KTM stable

After raising its stake KTM Power Sports AG to 47 per cent, Bajaj India is now planning to launch more products in India from the stable of in the Austrian bike maker to create its space in the supersports bike segment.

“We introduced our first product Duke 200 from KTM stable four months back. The response has been very well. We are selling about 1000 units a month. We want to exploit this supersports segment with multiple products from KTM stable,” K Srinivas, President, Motorcycle Business, Bajaj India said.

According to Srinivas, the second largest two-wheeler maker in India has “a definite plan” to create its space in Indian supersports segment, although he refused to share the details.

The Duke 200 was launched at Rs. 1.18 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), is manufactured locally at Bajaj’s facility at Chakan in Maharashtra. Another 125 cc variant of Duke produced in Chakan is being exported to Europe by Bajaj. The company has plans to export its KTM products to developed countries as CKD where it will use Austrian firm's global network to boost volumes.

“The KTM products are built on same line of Chakan unit as the Pulsar. The existing products are being exported to Japan and Eurpore. KTM has its own network in Europe an US. KTM is the second largest selling brand in Europe after BMW. We have to just send it to them as CKD,” he added.

Bajaj Auto, has consistently hiked its stake in KTM over the years since it picked up a 14.5 per cent stake in the company in 2007. Recently, in April last year, Bajaj picked up 6.3 per cent to take its stake at 47 per cent. Bajaj India is the second-largest shareholder after Cross Industries AG, which is the majority shareholder in KTM.