Bajaj Auto sales recover after 8 months, CT100 top seller

Bajaj Auto, India’s second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, has registered the year-on-year monthly growth of 9.68% for June 2015. Company sales data shows it sold 287,582 motorcycles during the month as against 262,202 units in June 2014.

June 2015 sales reveal that the company has recorded growth after posting a decline for the past eight successive months. Bajaj Auto had last record monthly sales growth (7.14%) in September 2014.

In an interview to Autocar Professional recently, Eric Vas, president, motorcycle business, Bajaj Auto, had said that after launching a slew of products in the market, the company is looking forward to recover its growth track. “We are certainly expecting a recovery in our numbers, which will be driven by the fact that we have put in some fairly interesting products,” he had said then.

Interestingly, the bike manufacturer is re-focussing its efforts on the 100cc commuter bike segment. In the first four months of 2015, Bajaj Auto launched two new 100cc motorcycles (Platina ES and CT100) and three new Pulsar models (AS150, AS200 and RS200).

The CT100 model, which saw its relaunch in March 2015 in an attempt to boost monthly sales volumes, has done the trick for the company at the lower end of the commuter motorcycle market. The model (which comes in two variants only) was the fifth largest selling motorcycle in India in May (66,263 units).

The CT100, a 99.27cc commuter motorcycle that comes only with a kick-start option and has front-and-rear drum brakes, is also the most affordable motorcycle from the Bajaj Auto stable. According to the company website, the CT100 spoke variant’s ex-showroom Delhi price is Rs 35,034.

The model replaced Bajaj Auto’s own Discover range from the list of highest sold motorcycles in India for May 2015, which was led by Hero MotoCorp’s Splendor, Passion and HF Delux occupying the top three slots respectively.

It can be recalled that Vas, in his interview, had clearly pointed out that “eventually we should be able to ship out more than 60,000 units of the CT100 per month. These numbers are only for the domestic market.” CT100’s monthly domestic sales are in-line with Vas’ earlier projections.

At the top end of its portfolio, the Pulsar RS200 is reportedly giving good traction to the company. The model, which is manufactured at the Chakan plant, has a two-month waiting period and has clocked bookings of more than 7,000 units since its national launch on March 26 this year. The company had launched the 24.2bhp Pulsar RS200 with an ex-showroom, Delhi price of Rs 118,000 (non-ABS) and Rs 130,000 (ABS variant).

With the success of the Pulsar RS200, the company now claims to command a market share of 59 percent in the super-sports segment, which it classifies as a category of motorcycles that come with a price tag of Rs 100,000 and above. While the RS200 is the first Pulsar to be priced above Rs 100,000, the company sells four other KTM models (Duke 200 and 390, RC200 and RC390) in its super-sports segment.

With total monthly sales of 53,263 units in May 2015, the Pulsar range stood as the seventh largest in the top-10 selling motorcycles for that month. Interestingly, Bajaj Auto sells eight models under its umbrella of the Pulsar brand as against its portfolio of 21 models (excluding the Kawasaki models).

The launch of the Bajaj Platina ES in January 2015 has also worked for the company by adding decent numbers to its monthly sales. The model, which the company claims to deliver a fuel efficiency of 96.9km per litre under ideal test conditions, is selling close to 20,000 units per month. With the sales of 24,043 units in May 2015, the model was the ninth largest selling motorcycle in India for that month. The Platina portfolio consists of two models currently – Platina ES and Platina 100.

To support its Discover brand, which has been losing traction in the 100cc-125cc motorcycle segment, the company is not just executing specially designed marketing initiatives like the Zing Zong rides, but it also plans to soon introduce another variant in this portfolio.

With at least three to four more new products (under the Pulsar, Avenger and Discover brands) planned for the market in this fiscal, the company remains upbeat about further improvement in its market share.

“We expect that there will be a substantial uptick in our market share after we launch a couple of more new products,” Vas had told Autocar Professional two months ago.