Bajaj Auto expects sales of higher-finish motorcycles to develop more rapidly than other motorcycles and its investment of Rs 650 crore in a new plant close to its current manufacturing facility in Chakan is aimed at developing capability to take benefit of this possible development, a senior organization executive has mentioned.
The Pune-primarily based two- and 3-wheeler maker earlier this week signed a pact with the Maharashtra government for setting up a new production facility for super premium-finish motorcycles such as KTM, Husqvarna and Triumph along with electric cars (EV), beginning with Chetak, at a proposed investment of Rs 650 crore.
“We believe that the premium segment of motorcycles will grow faster than others and Bajaj will be in a very good position to take advantage of this trend. And this is true for domestic and our overseas markets,” Bajaj Auto Ltd Executive Director Rakesh Sharma told PTI in an interaction on Thursday.
For Bajaj, the super premium-finish motorcycles incorporate Dominar, KTM, and bike models that would come from the company’s alliance with Triumph, he mentioned.
“And of course, along with the expansion of the EV portfolio, all of these together, we think the sales of these should grow fast. So we are building that capability and preparing ourselves to exploit that opportunity,” Sharma mentioned.
Bajaj Auto holds 48 per cent stake in Austrian premium sports motorcycle brand KTM. It introduced Husqvarna brand, which is aspect of the KTM group, in the nation in February this year.
In January, the Pune-primarily based automaker announced formal commencement of its non-equity international partnership with British iconic motorcycle maker Triumph to manufacture a variety of mid-capacity bikes in the nation.
According to Sharma, even though Bajaj Auto’s general motorcycle sales, which includes overseas, declined 21 per cent in April-November period of this fiscal, the premium-finish motorcycle sales, which incorporate sales of KTM and Dominar, grew 24 per cent for the duration of the exact same period.
“We can expect this double-digit growth to continue and this is the reason that we feel we need to invest in this new plant,” Sharma mentioned.
The upcoming facility, the work for which is anticipated to commence quite quickly, will be positioned just 4 kilometres away from its current manufacturing plant at Chakan.
It will be spread across 190 acres of land and the Rs 650-crore investment would primarily go into developing, plant and machinery, amongst other people.
The new plant, when totally operational, will have a total capacity of 1 million units per annum. The current Chakan plant has a capacity of 1.20 million motorcycles per annum, he mentioned.
The new plant will present about 2,500 jobs straight and lots of more indirectly, with 50 devoted vendors, he added.
In India, the general motorcycle industry is not in terrific shape presently, and sales in fiscal 2020-21 may perhaps finish up at the level of fiscal 2013-14, Sharma mentioned.
On Bajaj’s alliance with Triumph, he mentioned the two partners had been attempting to make up for lost time as the R&D work for the project got impacted due to the fact of the pandemic.
“We can see there is some delay, but we will see how much we can cut that,” he mentioned.
The very first Bajaj-Triumph bikes will be readily available from 2022 with costs beginning at significantly less than Rs 2 lakh for a 200cc motorcycle, Triumph Motorcycles Chief Commercial Officer Paul Stroud had mentioned even though announcing the collaboration in January this year.