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Bajaj Auto Ltd will launch a 100cc bike for the mass market by January, which it hopes would inject “excitement” in the 100cc bike segment where it is currently lacking.
Speaking to presspersons in Coimbatore on Wednesday on the sidelines of the opening of Bajaj Auto’s third dealership in the city, K. Srinivas, President (Motorcycle Business), Bajaj Auto Ltd, he said the company will launch in January a 100 cc bike that will be, apart from being “technologically the most advanced 100 cc bike in India”, will also be the “most expensive 100cc bike ever launched”. He refused however to divulge the price range in which it would be positioned.
Answering a question as to whether customers in that segment were not price conscious, he said, “our experience has been that customers in that segment were value conscious, not necessarily price conscious”. He felt that for too long, customers in that segment, for the sake of mileage, have to compromise on “boring bikes and boring features”. But Bajaj Auto wanted to offer along with mileage “very exciting features and exciting bikes”. This was one of the reasons why customers have started moving away from 100cc to 125cc bikes as they found a lot of features in the latter and the new launch was for the mass, and not niche, market.
Asked whether Bajaj Auto’s new 100cc bike would dislodge Splendor from its pedestal, Srinivas said “I have no doubt about it’. Already Bajaj’s Discover had usurped from Splendor the tag of being largest selling brand in September by a small margin but both brands have models higher than 100 cc too. He said that the new 100cc bike will be the most expensive 100cc bike is not the news. That it will be the “technologically most advanced” is the news.
On whether the technology for the new vehicle was developed in house or sourced from abroad, he said BAL, for the last two decades, did not opt for any foreign technology and everything was developed in-house. Its R&D division has nearly 1,000 personnel and the 100cc bike was the outcome of “our own R&D”.
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