Pulsar Revs Up Bajaj Sales; Hero, Tvs Cruise Along

Bajaj Auto's indigenously developed high-end motorcycle Pulsar has received a good initial response, with January sales touching 2,000 units in Maharashtra, currently the only market where the bike is offered. This is significant as the above 125cc engine category of motorcycles have a negligible share in the rapidly growing motorcycle market.

Pulsar, which is available in the 150cc and 180cc variants, is priced in the Rs 51,000-61,000 range (on-road price) in Mumbai. It is the only motorcycle to be manufactured at Bajaj's Chakan (near Pune) plant, which produces ungeared scooters and scooterettes.

R L Ravichandran, vice president (business development & marketing), Bajaj Auto, said plans were on to launch the Pulsar and Chetak 4-stroke, an environment friendly version of its 2-stroke scooter Chetak, in major markets during February. He said that sales of Boxer, Bajaj's entry-level motorcycle, constituted almost 75 per cent of its overall motorcycle sales.

During the month, Bajaj sold 62,665 motorcycles, a 91 per cent jump over its sales in January 2001. Bajaj logged a decline in sales across all other two-wheeler categories -- ungeared and geared scooters, and step-throughs. However, sales of its highly profitable three-wheelers, at 14,405 units, was higher than sales of 11,913 units in January 2001.

Both the other motorcycle majors, Hero Honda & TVS Motor Company, also posted healthy growth rates of 51.7 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively, in January. While Hero Honda sold 1.37 lakh bikes, against sales of 90,371 units last year, TVS, aided by the improving sales of the Victor, its recently launched 110 cc 4-stroke bike, sold 46,196 units against 31,148 units last year.

TVS, in a release, said that its growth in revenue terms, at 18 per cent, was higher than its growth in overall sales during January, largely due to the higher ratio of motorcycles sales. The company sold 80,297 two-wheelers during January, against 71,533 in January 2001.