Tvs Suzuki Launches Victor With Rs 40,000-Plus Tag

TVS-Suzuki Ltd, the Chennai-based two-wheeler manufacturer, has launched its four-stroke indigenous vehicle- Victor - in the popular segment of Rs 36,000-46000. The price of Victor ex-showroom Chennai is Rs 41187.

The company, which has a market share of 13 to 14 per cent in motorcycles, hopes to regain its market share in the segment through Victor. It had lost around 11 per cent market share owing to stagnating two-stroke two-wheeler sales in the last two years.

Explaining the rationale behind the positioning of Victor, Venu Srinivasan, managing director, said: "Four-stroke two-wheeler sales alone account for 80 per cent of the industry volumes and the popular segment accounts for 58 per cent of the total two-wheeler market.

 

Hence, Victor is positioned to grow in this segment." The fiercely competitive popular segment has around 14 vehicles or variants, most of which are four-stroke.

The company has projected to sell 70,000 units of Victor in the current fiscal and another 2 lakh units in the next fiscal. "We hope to attain a market share of 20-21 per cent in the motorcycle segment by end of fiscal 2002, with this vehicle (Victor) alone accounting for 8 per cent," he said.

Venu Srinivasan said that unlike other in the segment, the company had planned to come out with variants at shorter intervals. But, he refused to put a timeframe, saying that it depended on the sales of Victor.

R Chandramouli, vice-president (marketing), said that despite the overall drop in the market for scooters, TVS was able to increase its market share because of Scooty, its variant in the scooter segment. The company claimed to have displaced LML for the number two spot in the scooters segment.

To a query whether two-stroke engine production would be discontinued, he said, "The market for two-stroke has declined only in per cent terms and not in numbers, it has more or less stagnated in the last year."

He said that AVL List Gmbh of Austria and Leyland Technical centre of UK had assessed Victor's performance as way above standard criteria after assessing it on various parameters.