Suzuki Motorcycle expects two-wheeler sales to reach 1 mn units in three years

Company looking at leveraging Maruti Suzuki's market presence for growth

Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) is planning to increase its market presence in India to sell around 1 million (10 lakh) two wheelers by next three years from the last years' sales of four lakh units.

The company is also looking at synergies with the strengths of Maruti Suzuki, the car manufacturing JV which has huge presence across the country, said senior official from SMIPL.

Speaking to reporters in the sidelines of launch of Suzuki's new "street sport" motorcycle Gixxer in Chennai, Atul Gupta, Executive Vice President, SMIPL said, "We want to increase our sales of two wheelers in India to 1 million units in next three years. Last year, the sales was around 4 lakh units". The company is expecting its new product launches and expansion in point of sales would help it to achieve the growth.

With the new launch, the company has three scooter models and two motorcycle models in its kitty. It has 11% market share in scooters and around 1% in motorcycles. He said that the company is expecting its market share to go up in the near future, as it is planning to launch more variants and models to address various segments.

The company at present has around 630 touch points including around 330 dealers. Plans are to increase the touch points to 1,000 by March, next year, of which more than 600 would be dealership, he said.

When asked on whether the company would look at support from the Maruti Suzuki presence across the country for expansion, he said that the company has been looking at a synergy to work together wherever there is a requirement, in which the dealers of the car model could also look at options to be part of the motorcycle brand's distribution network.

He added that the company is expecting to sell one lakh units of the new motorcycle model, Suzuki Gixxer, in the market in the next 12 months.

"We are looking at 10% market share of the 150 cc motorcycle category. The market for this segment is currently 10 lakh and thus, we expect we will have one lakh units of the model sold in the next 12 months' period," he said.

The product is priced at Rs 74,552 ex-showroom Chennai, and the company expects that the cost of ownership of the vehicle would be 30% lower than the nearest competitor product.