H S Goindi, president (marketing), TVS Motor, said, "Though it's a small volumes segment, we will definitely be in it. However, the volumes will come from the 100-110cc segment only."
Though the 200cc-plus segment generates volumes close to only 4000 units monthly, it has been an attractive one for the industry majors. Hero Honda has the Karizma, Bajaj the Pulsar and Honda Motorcycle the CBR1000RR Fireblade and CB1000R models in the segment.
Like Bajaj tied up with Kawasaki and has a stake in KTM, TVS might also look at international tie-ups. "We are open to international tie-ups... we can never say never," Goindi said.TVS Motor may look to exit the three-wheeler cargo segment. "Sales in the segment are going down, so we will have to see if we want to be there," Goindi said.
Meanwhile, TVS Motor is hoping the Flame DS 125, which was relaunched last week after the Supreme Court approved the use of the twin spark technology, will boost sales in the 125cc segment.
Goindi added, "Flame is just picking up now, it did not meet our earlier expectations and it contributes just about 3% to our total sales. But by next year we hope we are able to do around 8000 numbers per month of both the models of Flame combined (SR and DS)." Currently the company sells only 4000 units of the Flame.
When asked if there would any regional demarcations for both the Flames, Goindi said, "not as of now. We have just started manufacturing and marketing Flame DS in certain places... looking at the response, we will decide how to take it forward."
With the revival of Flame DS 125 and it's newly launched 110cc bike Jive, TVS Motors aims to garner 10% volumes in 5-6 months, Goindo said. "In fact Jive will do better than Flame as it will bring us larger volume and a broader customer base, this product will do much better," he added. The company also launched the Wego gearless scooter on Wednesday.
TVS Motor sold 8.7 lakh motorcycles in April-October 2009, up 6.7% over the corresponding period last year. TVS Motors also expects a 30% rise in exports by next year. The company's exported 1.6 lakh units last year while it has exported 1.35 lakh units so far this financial year.
Exports of three-wheelers, which started two months back, are currently at about 200 units a month. The company exports to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Africa and Latin America. TVS is also looking at countries like Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt for three wheeler exports.
TVS is also expecting to improve the performance of its Indonesian subsidiary TVS Motor Company Indonesia, which reported a loss of Rs 88 crore last year. The overseas unit has capacity utilisation of only 30% as against a 80% utilisation in TVS Motor's units at Hosur (Tamil Nady), Mysore (Karnataka) and Solan (Himachal Pradesh).
Source : TVS gears up for play in 200cc segment - dnaindia.com


? Or a naked 200+CC bike Honda CB300R?

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