Face-lift for Pulsar, Discover

Bajaj Auto is ready with next-generation versions of its best-sellers to take on competition

Bajaj Auto, India’s second biggest bike manufacturer, has revamped its product line-up and will launch a series of next generation version of its current best-sellers — Pulsar and Discover.

The new range of bikes is a part of the company’s target of almost doubling its sales to 7-8 million units from 3.8 million units a year at present.

Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj says “we will have a completely new range of Discovers and Pulsars in the market in less than six months from now. These will be built on totally new platforms and will have very little or no similarity with the present generation models”.

The company presently sells four models under the Pulsar brand and two under the Discover brand. Both the models account for 80 per cent of the overall sales of the company every year. It on Thursday launched a third model under the Discover brand —Discover 125 at Rs 45,500 (ex-showroom Delhi).

This is the first major step by the company after it decided to do away with all its other brands to focus only on Pulsar and Discover. While the Pulsar is promoted as a bigger and sportier bike, the Discover is promoted as a high mileage product.

“Our target is to make seven to eight million units every year, including the new range, after three or four years. Some of the existing vehicles will remain and some will be replaced”, Bajaj adds.

Bajaj Auto presently sells about 130,000 units of the Discover per month. About 85,000 units of the Discover 100 are sold every month, making it the second largest selling model in India after the Hero Honda Splendour.

The Discover 150, which is the second largest selling model in the 150cc category after the Pulsar 150, currently sees sales of around 50,000 units per month. The new Discover 125 is expected to generate another 45,000 units per month, according to company officials.

“We will put out the targets for the next financial year (2011-12) after a few months but tentatively we are looking at a 20 per cent growth in domestic sales and exports in both two and three wheelers next year”, says Bajaj.

The new models, especially under the Pulsar brand, may be costlier than the current range with bigger engine displacement and better power, explains another Bajaj executive. The company has borrowed technology for the new Pulsar used for developing the KTM range of bikes which are on sale in Europe.

About 1,000-2,000 units of the KTM Duke 125 have been exported to Europe and sell for Euro 4,000. These KTM bikes are made at the Chakan facility in Maharashtra. KTM is an Austrian bike brand where Bajaj has a 38 per cent stake. KTM-branded bikes will start selling by the end of the year in India.