News Approved.

Bad part of the ride for Bajaj, I say! It may slowly improve later,

Can this cause be attributed to complete absense of 100cc bikes by Bajaj? Although, I know that price & mileage are good, still maybe people won't accept 125cc it seems ...

This 100cc's absense, is the only change that specifically happened to BAJAJ. I don't see any other big change ....

Is there any such change within the last 2-4 months, that may have lead to Bajaj losing market?

Bajaj is loosing because of Yamaha.. bajaj concentrates on the bigger bikes and this is where yamaha gave them a huge blow.. the sales of fz16 and r15 have eaten into the sales of the pulsars

I don't think that's the reason.The Platina 100cc is still very much in production and sells in good numbers!!

then how do you see(predict) the coming of baby ninja and ktm into market? would selling a few units of these be better for bajaj in the long run or sticking with the commuter segment?
these machines have complete different stats from p200/220 so pls dont say bajaj has them and so... yeah they are good but the difference matters...

not taking anything away from TVS, but still you must understand that the majority of the sales is from their bread and butter model - TVS XL super - a 70cc fun moped with kick start...

these sales figures of overall units mean nothing much. W.R.T to geared bikes bajaj is still way ahead of TVS......


my point is, this news is more an effort by the news agency to make a very inaccurate representation of data into a news item.....


OT: how i wish TVS bought a new bike that takes performance to a whole new level...without the tappet noise please...

What???? i dont think u got any of wat i said.. fz is eating away at all pulsars.. 150 to 180 to 200, and then r15 is eating 200 and 220. Yes they still sell.. but wat i meant was, share has been reduced because of these 2 new bikes

Dude I must admit I totally disagree with you here. Overall sales figures do mean a lot in the auto industry and are an accurate representation of whats happening. I dont get the lack of love for the XL. Its got 2 wheels and an engine in between them and has good market demand. If the XL is providing major volumes in TN(I would know, having studied in Coimbatore for 4 years) then there is no reason why it should be discounted.Going by your line of thinking is like saying Hyundai are the #1 auto manufacturer in India in sales volume if you discount Maruti's 800 & Alto .....

The point is Bajaj has no business being in 4th place when we consider its history & financial strength. The company has signalled a clear shift away from the 100s (which is a good thing) but has failed to make much progress in the 125cc + segment. Visually the Pular range looks the same across engine capacities. They had a golden opportunity with the Avenger 200 but gave us new wine in the same old bottle. The 220 has the same body panels as the other Pulsars. Looks do matter to us Indians and Bajaj has clearly dropped the ball. Last weeks news conference had Bajaj announce their 150+cc offerings in 2009 would be out only in the second half of the year. Like I posted in another thread - what next, Yamaha at # 4 by mid 2009?

i am surprised... never did i say i had any animosity to wards xl super. Rather, look at the profits coming from XL super and say a platina or something like that. The margin is whats more important. and Alto or 800 does bring in good margin thanks to common platforms. Same with Bajaj. We should probably with looking at Revenues. We might be happy or elated to see TVS climbing ranks. But TVS motors would rather want to see a climb in the revenue charts rather than just the number games. it would be foolish of them, as a company to go by sheer numbers.

they would probably look at individual sales like

RTR vs Pulsar, Uni, etc
Star vs Platina, Splendour etc
Pep vs other scooterettes
Flame Vs Disco, Shine etc
XL super vs ?

After the break up of their product sales their picture aint rosy at it is made out to be.

TVS should be working hard on a mass model like the original victor. its success will hold good for all of us at it will simultaneously push for new performance models from them.


OT: if you could come to an assessment from having been there for 4 years...well i was in TN for 8 years and i am still here so yeah....

anyways having close people in the company helps too....

Dude, I absolutely agree with you on all your points. Youre right - TVS needs a mass model, the Apache is a brilliant effort (my bro owns one & I love it) but they need a volume bike soon.

Youre right about the segment by segment comparo as well. That & an honest balance sheet is the best indicator of a company's actual performance in the market and standing. But honestly I do not think the Indian market has matured enough to move to such analysis. Take any article in any of the auto mags/business papers wrt sales figures. In my 12+ years of faithfully reading indian auto mags I have yet to come across a segment by segment comparison of sales & analysis of the same be it for the 2 wheeler industry or 4 wheeler industry. All we get are HH sales were at 2,xx,xxx units , Bajaj sells 1,xx,xxx units (once upon a time), TVS sells , 7x,xxx units etc. I remember trying to get a sales volume split among models for Indian 2 wheelers for an assignment I was doing a couple of years back & couldnt get that info anywhere. Thus we cant help but focus on total sales volumes for each manufacturer.

And yes, insider info does help

@neil

thats true...media reports always have an overall picture that is hardly useful. but its noteworthy that companies, atleast the companies are looking at segment wise sales.

and the market no matter how mature or immature will have the basic distinction of motorbikes, scooters and stepthru's. its sad that media does not categorize the info.

IRONY but a FACT!!

If you take TVS motorcycle sales into account, you would be surprised to find that what the original Victor sold per month, the present bikes (read:Apache, Star "Sport","City","City110" and Flame) just about manage that figure, collectively!! Yeah it's high time TVS needs to bring a mass model like Victor, coz i think that's the reason how we have seen TVS evolve as proper/serious bike maker!!

OT: Makes me wonder why the "More Smiles per hour", Original Victor fizzled out..??
Product related problems or apathy by TVS towards the Victor Brand..??

I get a sense of inevitability about this.