Bajaj, Hero & TVS hold their own

It may seem hard to believe this but there was a time in the 1990s when LML was a reasonable force to reckon with in the geared scooter segment. Of course, Bajaj Auto was the monarch of all it surveyed but the challenger from Kanpur was its first serious rival. Today, LML is no longer part of the Indian landscape. Bajaj has moved on to motorcycles with no intention of returning to the scooter space. A lot has changed in the two-wheeler segment over the years and the seeds for this transition were first sown in the early ‘80s when the Japanese made their entry.

While Suzuki tied up with TVS, Yamaha chose Escorts as its ally. Honda went in for separate alliances with the Hero and Kinetic groups. Bajaj was the exception to the equity route and opted for Kawasaki as its technical partner.

It was an era when geared scooters were ruling the roost even while the Kinetic Honda partnership was offering customers automatic (gearless) options. Women, in particular, were delighted because here was a mode of transport that met their daily needs. No longer would they need to endure travel in crowded buses and trains.

The bigger change, though, was happening with the gradual ascent of four-stroke motorcycles which soon became an avalanche and virtually buried the geared scooter monopoly. The assault was led by Hero Honda which soon overtook Bajaj by the turn of the century to emerge the country’s largest manufacturer.

Honda, meanwhile, had called it quits with Kinetic and it was the beginning of an uphill ride for the Pune-based company which eventually sold its business to Mahindra & Mahindra. Escorts, likewise, parted ways with Yamaha and exited the two-wheeler space. TVS and Suzuki followed suit . The most recent divorce was Hero and Honda in late 2010 after being together for 26 years. Bajaj and Kawasaki, however, continue their association at a global level especially markets in the ASEAN region.

While LML, Escorts and Kinetic could not weather competitive pressures and eventually bowed out, Bajaj, Hero and TVS have held their own . Nobody gave Hero too much of a chance after its parting of ways with Honda but the Indian company is still the clear market leader thanks largely to the powerful draw of its Splendor and Passion bike models. It has now announced plans to spread its wings and enter Latin America and Africa.

TVS launched the Victor around the time of its separation from Suzuki and the 110cc bike quickly caught the fancy of the market. Just when it seemed that the company was comfortably in the driver’s seat, it could not recreate the Victor magic with its other bikes. Today, TVS is staging a gradual comeback with its scooters . It was the Pulsar which catapulted Bajaj to the top slot in the ‘performance’ segment, a position which it has held on to since then. The company decided that motorcycles would be its main growth driver and the only way to stay relevant was to be different.

This prompted the launch of the 125cc Discover in 2004 but it took Bajaj another five years to figure out that it made more sense to have just a handful of brands in its portfolio. It owns 48 per cent in KTM of Austria which is now expanding its global footprint to the US, Europe, China and Japan. Bajaj is also India's largest exporter of bikes with nearly 1.5 million units shipped out annually.

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