Q: How do you think the market will get shaken up, once all these changes happen? Your key competitor might easily be left without the Honda name in key brands like Splendour and Passion. Do you think that makes any difference in the market place?
Q: Do you think it makes a lot of change in the market place in the way your consumers perceive brands on whether there is an international component to it or not or do you think the essential change in the market place could be the relative aggression of your key competitor and its international partner, if and when they choose to go their own way?
Q: There has been a lot of talk about how much global players bring to the table in terms of technology and expertise in their joint venture and affiliations with Indian manufacturers. How true is that in the two-wheeler space?

A: In general I would like to say that the two-wheeler game or more specifically for us the motorcycle game is far more a marketing game, far closer to the FMCG kind of business such as the Unilever or the P&G than the aircraft industry or the mobile phone industry or some other industry which maybe still driven by a lot of technology.

Here it is not the technology that is different, it is more about marketing and it is more about being first in the market place, with the USP, with a point of difference. I have said this often, it is not that the Pulsar is a better motorcycle than other 150 CC motorcycles; it is not that the Splendour is a better 100 CC bike than others out there. It is how you create the perception of a better product that is important and not the technology itself. So this is not a technology game, this is a marketing game.

Q: How is your business doing now? Have you added any further market share or are production constraints coming in the way?

A: No, we are adding a little market share. In fact it has been a record breaking time for us. This month we should do over 350,000 vehicles well over 300,000 motorcycles, which we have been struggling to achieve for sometime. Close to about 14,000 three-wheelers. I think both these will represent all time highs for us for any one month.

This quarter we will close at close to a million vehicles which will be the highest ever. This gives us confidence that our stated goal of four million vehicles for this year is something that is achievable. Even for the first half at over 1.9 million vehicles, this would be the best ever and it is not just sales. We did a 20% earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the first quarter.

We are certainly staying in that space if not a little better for the second quarter. Even in terms of profitability, it has been a very rewarding quarter for us. In terms of our key brands, we expect the Discover now to be close to 150,000 motorcycles a month. We should see that in this month and the next and for the Pulsar to be close to 100,000 bikes a month and these are in my view outstanding figures for true motorcycle brands.

Source: Motorcycle sales seen at 3 lakh units this month: Bajaj - CNBC-TV18 -