Bajaj’s Sales Performance for January

Bajaj Auto, India’s second largest player has reported a sales growth of 6.83 per cent for the month of January 2012. The company managed to sell 2,94,439 units of their bikes which is their highest ever for the month of January. Their sales figure for the same month the previous year stood at 2,94,439 units.

Bajaj Auto Limited said that the company’s exports grew 13.01 per cent during the month at a  figure of  1,16,996 units compared to 1,03,526 units in January 2011. The company manages to hit great sales figures through exports. It has marked its presence in several nations and with the pricing power which Bajaj products possess, they turn out to be number crunchers for the company. The company is constantly tapping the potential in several International markets with its wide array of products.

It’s always been with the case of Bajaj that most of their sales will churned out from two of its best brands – Pulsar and Discover. The new generation Pulsar was just launched on Monday and as our regular readers would be knowing it’s a 200cc naked bike which incorporates an all new engine featuring twin spark technology whose unique patents are with Bajaj Auto.  This technology will slowly be brought into the engines of Discover series as well.

Though the 2012 Pulsar is launched, it’ll more likely take another couple of months for it to hit the road. Let’s just wait to see what kinda sales figures would the new Pulsar be able to churn out for Bajaj Auto Limited.

Yamaha Adds R15 V2.0 Limited Editions

R15 V2.0 has been THE bike that has done wonders to Yamaha. It is indeed one of the most preferred bikes amongst the Indian youth.  Though there is a common mindset that 1.2 lakh is way too much for a 150cc bike, its continuous performance has made Indian bikers agree to the fact that it is worth every single buck spent on it.

We’d already posed that Yamaha has announced the launch of its anniversary edition of its R15 V2.0 with two special colours which are named WGP 5oth Anniversary Edition and the other one being Fiery Red Special Edition. Both these bikes are extremely hot looking and it’s always worth spending money on a limited edition bike. The reason being that the production of these bikes is just limited to a few 100 units and after selling them, you’ll never be able to get your hands on them as they’ll be off the production line.

There is absolutely no change that’s been carried over to this bike in terms of technical aspects. It’s just the colour scheme that has seen a change. The Fiery Red scheme is engulfed by fire flame design in form of graphics which begins flowing right from the front fairing and continues its flow till the rear. Brilliant work! Though it lacks the racing instinct in this all new colour scheme, I became a big fan of it, the moment I took a look at it in the Yamaha stall in the Auto expo.

Talking about the new White colour, it is just stunning in its looks, though it looks simple and humble unlike the other colour of this bike. The bike is completely painted in white with just a mild pinch of red stickering here and there without making it a red over – dose. The small rise in seat which appears between the rider’s and the pillion seat is coated with red which adds up the gorgeousness of the bike many – folds.

Most of the showrooms have already commenced bookings for this bike. Yamaha has now updated the images of these 2 limited edition in the R15V2.0 page under the colours tab. The R15 WGP limited edition is priced at INR 1,11,000 (Ex – Showroom, New Delhi) and the Fiery Red scheme is priced at INR 1,10,000

HMSI Launches Next Generation Dio for Rs. 42,362

After showcasing 7 new product at Atuo Expo 2012, India’s largest scooter manufacturing company Honda Motor scooters India Pvt. Ltd. (HMSI) has now launched the next generation Dio with the price tag of Rs. 42,362 Ex-showroom Delhi. The next generation Dio will be available in showroom by February end. The next generation Dio is built on a platform to give an unmatched ride experience with high level of fuel efficiency. The next generation Dio has been revised in all the parameters. Be it styling, ergonomics, safety or engine.

The next generation Dio has got new advance and highly reliable 110cc engine from Honda which is 10% more powerful than old Dio and can generate of power of 9 bhp. The new engine is equipped with several cutting edge technologies like roller rocker arm, reduced valve spring load, reduced cooling fan diameter size and better stability of weight roller & load of pulley spring. All this new features has enable next generation Dio to reduce friction and generate 15% more fuel efficiency than the old 102cc Dio which is around 55 Kmpl.

Next generation Dio has got all new unisex motoscooter styling. The aerodynamically designed front and the unique premium 3D emblem and sporty shaped integrated rear with elegant tail lamp will surely win the heart of youths. It has got host of new features like the new combi brake feature for improved riding stability and braking efficiency, tubeless tyres for better comfort and convenient riding, increased leg space for comfortable ride experience, convenient  maintenance free battery, Vicious air filter and spacious under seat luggage box.

The next generation Dio will be available in five colors – sports red, matt axis grey metallic, pearl sunbeam white, candy palm green and liblon violet metallic. With the ex-showroom price of 42,362 next generation Honda Dio will surely do good numbers.

Yamaha’s Records 40% Growth in January

Yamaha made its initial foray into India in the year 1985. In the month of August 2001, Yamaha India became a 100 per cent subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, Japan (YMC). In the year 2008, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. entered into an agreement with YMC to become a joint-investor in the motorcycle manufacturing company “India Yamaha Motor Private Limited, abbreviated as (IYM)”.

India Yamaha Motor, the Indian subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Company, has recorded     good performance in this New Year with high sales growth backed by its dynamic product portfolio, registering an overall sales growth of 40 per cent. In the domestic market Yamaha sold 26,300 units in January 2012 as against 21,974 units sold in the same period last year thereby registering a 20 per cent sales growth. The export figures stood at 13,640 units in January 2012 while 6,623 motorcycles were exported in the month of January 2011. The overall sales stood at 39,940 units in January 2012 vs. 28,597 units in January 2011.

Speaking on this results produced by the company, Mr. Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO & Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., said, “Continuing with 2011 Sales trend, we are very happy with the growth registered in January and plan to keep the momentum high for the rest of 2012. We attribute this growth to the success of our flagship models both in the deluxe & premium segments – R15, FZ series & SZ series. We are planning to enhance our Best 3S (Sales, Service & Spares) set-up in tier-2 & tier-3 cities and increase our customer touch points in the rural areas to further boost our sales.”

IYM operates from its state-of-the-art manufacturing units located at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh & Faridabad in Haryana and produces motorcycles both for domestic & export markets. With a strong workforce of more than 2,000 employees, IYM is highly customer-driven and has a countrywide network of over 400 dealers. Presently, its product portfolio includes VMAX – 1,679cc, MT01 – 1,670cc, YZF-R1 – 998cc, FZ1 – 998cc, Fazer – 153cc, FZ-S – 153cc, FZ – 153cc, SZ, SZ-X & SZ-R – 153cc, YZF-R15 Version 2.0 – 150cc, SS125  – 123cc, YBR 125 – 123cc, YBR 110 -106cc and Crux -106cc.

Yamaha will also be launching its scooter range into the Indian market in a few months from now. With the current demand for scooters out here, expect the performance of the company to go up in the coming days.

TVS Motors Posts 7% Revenue Growth in Q3

South India based TVS Motor Company, which is the country’s third largest player in the Indian market has registered a growth rate of 7 per cent in terms of revenue in the third quarter of the current financial year. The company’s revenues grew to a whooping sum of INR 1762 crore in the quarter which ended by last December from INR 1647 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

Profit before tax (PBT) during the quarter under review was higher at a sum of INR 75.56 crore, compared to INR 70.29 crore recorded in the same period of the previous year. Profit after tax (PAT) in the current quarter was INR 56.53 crore compared to Rs. INR 55.75 crore in the previous comparable quarter. For the period from April 2011 to December 2011 , the company’s cumulative PBT and PAT were substantially higher than the comparable period of the previous year. While cumulative PBT for nine months ending December 2011 increased to INR 254.28 crore from INR 188.52 crore in the previous year, the cumulative PAT for nine months ending December 2011 increased to INR 191.84 crore from INR 150.90 crore reported in the previous comparable period.

In the third quarter of the current fiscal, the company reported total two-wheeler sales at 5.19 lakh units, compared with 5.18 lakh units in the corresponding period of the previous year. Scooter sales grew by 11% to 1.38 lakh units in the current quarter from 1.24 lakh units during the corresponding quarter of the previous year, while motorcycles registered sales of 1.93 lakh units in the reporting quarter against 2.11 lakh units in the quarter ended December 2010.  .

Two wheeler exports registered 24% growth with sales increasing to 63700 units in the current quarter from 51441 units in the quarter ended December 2010.
During the quarter, PT TVS Motor Company Indonesia, a wholly owned subsidiary of TVS Motor Company has registered total two wheeler sales of 4033 units in comparison with 3800 units recorded in the same period of the previous year.  For the nine months ending December 2011, PT TVS Motor Company recorded cumulative sales growth of 28 per cent with 18,905 units against 14,809 units in the comparable period of the previous year.

Bajaj Pulsar 200 NS – Launch Report

I shouldn’t say it was a long wait for the Next Generation Pulsar to be launched. Rather I should mention we all have waited on and on and on and looks like God has finally answered all our long – standing prayers. Mr. Bajaj had given life to his words. He had mentioned sometime back that the next generation of Pulsars will be based on a whole new platform and will be the first bike to incorporate a few technologies. That is what exactly Bajaj Auto has done for the Pulsar.

The launch of the 2012 Pulsar took place in Mumbai for a change and the venue was ITC Grand Central this time. There weren’t much of fanfare created in the hotel premises by placing posters or bill – boards here and there. The launch was scheduled at 2 PM and the rooms of the ball room opened right then.

There was an unexpected surprise waiting for us as all the Pulsar models right from its inception in the year 2001 was kept on display. The first Classy looking Pulsar with round headlamp made me stare at her for quite sometime as this is my favourite Pulsars ever. Next to that in the queue was the DTS-i variant and you know the history of Pulsars very well. The Pulsar 135 and the ‘Speed Lines’ variant of the 220 were formed the closing of this long line. There was a small board kept beside every bike displaying their year of launch and their special features, of course.

There was a video played which featured all the commercials of Pulsar till date from the very first commercial which emphasized its tagline ‘Definitely Male’. I really had a nice time watching all these TVCs. I t instilled a sense of Nostalgia within me. Then as an end note of this video was played the 10th anniversary video of Pulsar which we’d posted a long time back in BikeAdvice.

With this ended the hypes that surrounded the bike to be launched. The launch ceremony then begun with an inaugural speech of Mr. K Srinivas, President, Two Wheelers, Bajaj Auto. He said, “Pulsar as a brand is moving front and forward.” He said that he wanted to explain the question ‘What makes Pulsar a legendary bike?’

Here are the points he mentioned:

• “When you see one, you recognize one.” Think about the sentence he said and then you’ll understand that every ‘PulsarManiac’ in the country would happily rejoice. He said that the characteristics of Pulsar which includes the fuel tank, the LED lamps, wolf eyes and the speedo are all unique only to Pulsars.
• “Pulsar satisfies the burning desire and not the need.” In the year 2001 when first Pulsar was launched for the Indian market, the entire market was dominated entirely by commuter bikes and Bajaj daringly ventured into the Sport – Bike segment.
• Thrill of riding is now affordable because of Pulsars. Ina market when ‘Fill it, Shut it and Forget it’ was what drove the minds of Indians, it needs a lot of guts to come up with a bike like Pulsar. (I didn’t tell this. He told!)
• Today, around 1 Mn Pulsars are sold worldwide in around 25 countries which includes Philippines and Columbia to name a few.
• Pulsar has become a part of culture and then he added that Pulsar is viral as well.

Then came to stage Mr. Mr. Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto to talk a few words about the Pulsar brand of bikes. He marked the beginning of his speech by telling, “When we first made the Pulsar, we didn’t make it for any of the reasons. We simply made it because that was US. ”

In order to explain his quote further he used Dr. Porsche’s famous words ‘I couldn’t find the car I want. Si, I decided to make it.’ Similarly he said the country didn’t have the kinda bike that he’d imagined and so they decided to make their own one by coming up with the Pulsar. He thwen added, “We’re more excited to see the bike and in fact you all would have only half the excitement as us.”

Then started the interesting part of his speech. He referred Pulsar as ‘A Three Layered Animal’. The following are the 3 layers mentioned by him.

• Pulsar As A Product – He referred to the best in class functionalities that Pulsar boasts of when one talk about Pulsar as a product from the stable of Bajaj.
• Pulsar As A Brand – He claimed that Pulsar is nothing less than the most profitable bike on Planet Earth. Bajaj currently works on an operating profit margin of 20 per cent for Pulsars and them he generalized it for all the Bajaj products. He said, “If a Brand is not profitable and cannot produce better business results and lacks pricing power, then it cannot be claimed as a Brand at all.”
• Pulsar As A Strategy – 40 years before the launch of Pulsar, the entire strategy of Bajaj goes in one word – Chetak. People visualized Chetak as a value for money, family vehicle, low cost, durable and a reliable product. He was indeed right. India cannot forget Chetak so easily.

He said the company’s ascent is to make a better and better Pulsar every passing day. He added, “Earlier, Chetak was Bajaj’s centre of gravity and now Pulsar is Bajaj’s centre of gravity. “

He had some interesting points about the Discover brand too. He claims, “Discover is nothing but the commuterized version of Pulsar.” “Even KTM comes from the learnings of Pulsar though both are entirely different products.” Here is the statement which will make every PulsarManiac roam around with his collars up atleast for the next couple of days. He said, “If Pulsar goes wrong, the entire strategy of Bajaj goes wrong. If Pulsar gets it right, so does Bajaj.”

Though the first Pulsar was launched only in the year 2001, the background work for it begun as early as 1998.

Then the dais was taken over by Mr. Abraham Joseph, Chief Technology Officer, Bajaj Auto. He handles brilliantly the features and the engineering aspects f the Pulsar 200 NS. He compared all the aspects with the P220 so as to get a better clarity. He said, P220 is the benchmark for performance bikes till now.

The moment finally came when a guy in racing attire brought the Pulsar 200 NS to the stage from backdrop. That’s when we really gotta take a first glimpse of the 2012 Pulsar 200NS. The first look was just great and was more stunning to know that this time it was a naked bike. I’ve posted all the details of this bike in a separate post titled ‘Insights of Pulsar 200NS’.

So, this is what exactly happened in the venue of the bike’s launch which was indeed much awaited. The bike will most probably be hitting the showrooms in the month of April. The price as I’d mentioned in other posts is less than a lakh and we don’t know the exact price till now. We’ll update it soon in the blog as soon as we get to know about it.

Pulsar 200 NS Insights

Upgrading and face – lifting are two different entities when it comes to Motorcycles. However, it so happens unfortunately in India that they can mean anything for anything. But for the 2012 Pulsar it was not either of these. It was a whole new bike by itself.

Naked bike is by itself a whole new breed for Bajaj Auto. But, one has to insanely agree upon the fact that Bajaj has always kept its pulse on the mindset of Indian youth which is why Pulsars are considered to be youth icon.  Now, they should have realized that naked bikes are the sensation in Indian market. So, in simple terms, this time it’s the NS (Naked Sport) for ‘PulsarManiacs.’

Pulsars, though claims to be sport – bikes are never preferred to be used on tracks even upon mods. I think that has made Bajaj Auto think about it and act accordingly. As I mentioned above, this is a whole new bike which has got features and technologies incorporated on this bike for the first time.

The 200NS is powered by a 200cc, 4 valves, single cylinder engine and thought on spark plugs have gone beyond DTS-i. This time, it incorporates triple spark ignition, which is one of its kind and Bajaj Auto has got unique patents pending for it. That’s a great advantage for the company indeed and no two words on that. The DTS-i engine aided the company in scaling new heights in terms of dominance and sales. Expect the same from this engine as well. However, the abbreviation for this new engine wasn’t mentioned there and so I don’t know how it will be named. Probably, TTS-i!

The engine is designed is such a way that the engine coolant goes through the gap between all the spark plugs ensuring better and rapid cooling of engine. That should be a great boon for guys who are gonna rev, rev and rev up this bike. The venture carb will do its work brilliantly.

Talking about ht external appearance, the bike looks really aggressive. The headlamp though is not the same as the fox – eyed ones; it is indeed got its cues from the older ones. The body lines are basically derived from the Pulsars elder siblings so that it keeps up the tradition of Pulsar, carrying it front and forward.  A close observation would reveal the way the engine compartment looks like. It is tightly packed offering a real sport – bike look and I loved the way this is done. Good work chaps!

We’ve been having the conventional exhausts for a long time with just very minor changes made to this. This really needed a drastic change. The Pulsar 200NS now incorporates low slung central exhaust which takes the Pulsars to the next level. This would enhance the bike’s handling in the track. Since there is no weight onto the sides, handling this bike in the track should be fun to be with. Also, the time taken for retrieving it back to the position takes less time than the conventional ones.

All the performance aspects of the Pulsar 200NS are compared with the P220 and the reason for this being that Bajaj considers this model to be the epitome of performance. Bajaj claims that the Pulsar 200NS claims that the time taken for 0 -60 kmph is 3.61 seconds and can manage to claim a top speed of 136 kmph.

The frame strength in the Pulsar 200NS is as much as 50 per cent more rigid than the P220, the Fastest Indian. Also, the damping characteristics of this bike are just great. ‘Damping’ refers to ‘the capacity built into a mechanical or electrical device to prevent excessive correction and the resulting instability or oscillatory conditions.’

To mention about the brakes, both the wheels are fitted with discs to offer enhanced braking experience. The dimensions of the front disc is 280 mm and that of the rear is 230 mm. Nitrox filled mono – cross suspension is expected to do a great job on this bike.

The rear looks more stunning now. The tail light is the same double strap that is a part of identity of all Pulsars. I liked the way the rear number plate holder is placed. It is derived front he KTM Dukes and that makes the bike a worth for the bucks spent on it.

The variant now launched is a Naked Sports one. Mr. Bajaj said that there are chances of a fairing version which might be launched in a few months, though he was not very certain about it. Also, there could be more than one Pulsar on the way for the Indian market awaiting for us. Also on display was a Pulsar with yellow colour scheme. It looked really fresh and the scheme itself is a new one for Bajaj products.

There was one fact that I didn’t like about this bike. From long shots, the 200NS resembles the 135 LS to a greater extent. Otherwise, it is a good looking bike though it resembles the Honda CB1000R perfectly. This is again not intentional but it so happened as such.

But, what surprises me is when Mr. Bajaj declared the price, he should have been specific about it. He just said generically that it’ll be priced at less than a lakh of bucks. But, taking the features and technologies that this bike features, one needn’t be hesitant to pay this sum of money.