To regain its lost glory in the commuter motorcycle segment, Bajaj Auto plans to launch new products and strengthen the existing line-up in the next two years.
Though the company continued doing well at the entry-level segment — with its CT 100, Platina and Discover 100/110 — as also in sports and ‘super-sports’ segments, with its Pulsars, Avengers, the Dominar 400 and the KTMs, it could not perform adequately in the large ‘commuter’ segment and sold less than what was expected.
“Hopefully, this gap will be taken care of in the next couple of years through existing and new products. This is a critical segment,” Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto, said in the company’s latest annual report.
Bajaj’s offerings in the commuter segment include Discover 125 and the V. It is here that the company performed poorer than expected, and did not meet the tough targets that it had set for itself.
In FY2018, KTM was the fastest growing motorcycle brand for the company, logging a growth of 32 per cent at 46,321 units. This performance is partly on account of the success of the new MY17 product range, and the introduction of a new model, the KTM Duke 250.
Strong export growth
While Bajaj’s domestic motorcycle sales declined a tad in 2017-18, its exports reported a strong growth after two challenging years. In FY2017, motorcycle exports were hit on account of sharp currency devaluations in critical African markets. Thankfully, that was a thing of the past.
In FY2018, Bajaj’s motorcycle exports grew by 14.5 per cent to about 1.4 million units and its three-wheeler exports rose 38.9 per cent, at 267,820 units.
Total revenues from exports rose to $1.36 billion (about ₹9,703 crore) in FY18 as against $1.09 billion (₹7,880 crore) in FY17.
The growth in motorcycle exports in FY18 came on the back of robust sales in Africa, led by the economic recovery in Nigeria, as well as in the ASEAN region due to product launches in the Philippines and entry into Malaysia.
Its focus on the sports segment in countries like Argentina in the Latin American market is paying rich dividends. Incidentally, new markets, where BAL has entered in the last three years, now contribute to almost half of the growth of three-wheeler exports.
BAL is optimistic about export prospects in FY2019 and is investing in its key markets, said the report.