...To Focus On Ungeared Scooters

Bajaj Auto has decided to invest heavily in its ungeared scooter business, which it believes will be the vehicle of growth in future.

The company has said it will invest around Rs 350 crore annually for the next few years, a major portion of which will be earmarked for developing ungeared scooters, the market for which is dominated by rival Kinetic Honda.

To strengthen its hold in this segment, Bajaj Auto has launched three new products: Saffire, a 100cc 4-stroke scooter designed with Tokyo Research and Development (R&D) technology, 2-stroke 60cc scooterette Sunny Spice and the 4-stroke Fusion.

The company's president Rajiv Bajaj said it was targeting monthly sales of 3,500 units, 4,000 and 4,500, respectively, for each of the three new brands.

 

Bajaj said the growth in the geared scooters segment was slowing down and hence the need of the hour was value-for-money products.

The company has decide to make the revamped Bajaj Chetak its flagship product in the segment. Chetak's unique selling points will be its affordable price, which will be sold at less than Rs 30,000, and its fuel economy, at 65 km per litres.

Bajaj said the company was gearing up to strengthen its motorcycles business, and will strive to increase its presence in the north and eastern markets. He added that the difference in market share with leader Hero Honda was significant, and Bajaj Auto was taking steps to reduce this gap.

The company has also decided to introduce a new M80 4-stroke next month. Designed to have large tyres and low pricing, the product is primarily aimed at the rural market.

The company's M 80 Major, introduced in the same segment in August last year, increased the sales in the second half of the year by 40 per cent as compared to the first half. The market share for the same grew to 68 per cent from last year's 58 per cent.

Bajaj has introduced a first of its kind, 175 cc 4 stroke three wheeler in Delhi which runs on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). The engine gives fuel efficiency of 62 km per kg of CNG and has a running cost which is half that of petrol.