Latest Bike News

Hero Honda investing in its solo future

May 2, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Big budget deals and makeover in progress

Japanese motorcycle giant Honda is making profit from their ex-joint venture Hero Honda even post break-up. Honda first sold their stake in the joint venture to their partner Hero group for almost Rs 4,000 crore last December. Hero however, is still dependent on Honda for technology. So as an immediate measure, Hero has struck a deal with Honda where the former will produce the Honda engines for their existing products under a licence till June 2014. Hero will pay around Rs 2,350 crore for the same over the course of the deal as royalty to Honda! On the other hand, Hero is now focusing on their solo run in the Indian motorcycle market where they are currently the leaders. It has hired a UK based creative agency Law and Kenneth to create a new brand identity and its communication, along with another international firm Wolff Olins for the same job. Hero wants to revamp their brand completely and though allowed by Honda to retain their name till 2014, want to change the brand name and logo to suit their new strategies.

Words: Piyush Sonsale

Made In India

April 28, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

BMW bikes to sport Hero gearboxes

Hero Motors recently signed an agreement with BMW Motors, under which the former will become sole supplier of gearboxes to BMW Motorrad, the two-wheeler arm of BMW Motors. Hero would be developing motorcycle gearboxes both for domestic and international markets.

The deal would be valid for a timespan of four or five years, depending on the transmissions sourced for different products by BMW Motorrad. Pankaj Munjal, managing director, Hero Motors, said, “We have developed the gearbox ourselves. Usually, components such as engines and transmissions are made by the company itself, as they involve advanced technology. We have achieved the expertise. BMW Motorrad will source gearboxes from us for products it sells globally.” “That Europe is the best place for sourcing components is not necessarily correct. The landscape is changing. Our transmission business, for one, has been growing over 70% a year for the last few years, he added.

Hero Motors is part of the Hero Group business conglomerate that is worth around $4.5-billion globally.

Words: Saeed Akhtar

New CBZ Xtreme

April 25, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Launched with a face-lift

Hero Honda have introduced a face-lifted version of their 150-cc commuter, CBZ Xtreme. Apart from the following cosmetic changes, there is no change in the 149.2-cc, single cylinder air-cooled engine of the bike.

Digital- analog combo instrument cluster
Ignition shutter
Side-fairing on fuel tank with new graphics
New 5-spokes alloys
Front and rear disc brakes
LED tail lamp
New rear shockers
Exhaust shield
Clip-ons
Step pillion seat
Undercowl for engine

The new Hero Honda CBZ Xtreme has been priced at Rs 72247 and Rs. 68942 (OTR, Delhi and Mumbai respectively).

Words: Gasha Aeri

Garware Motors launches Hyosung super bikes in India

April 21, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Bikes to be available in 5 cities; bookings open now!

Bike fanatics in India have a reason to rejoice as Garware Motors along with S&T Motors today announced the launch of two new super bikes – GT650R and ST7. The GT650R fully faired sports bike is priced at Rs. 4,75,000 (ex-showroom-Delhi) for single tone colour and Rs. 4,90,000 (ex-showroom-Delhi) for the dual tone colour, whereas ST7, a 700cc cruiser, is priced at Rs. 5,69,000 (ex-showroom-Delhi). Deliveries of these bikes will start by mid of June.

The bikes were unveiled by Ms Diya Garware – MD of Garware Motors and Dr. Taekwon Kim, President S & T Motors Corporation.

Garware Motors will open bookings for these bikes from April 20, 2011 and will be initially available in five cities – Pune, Mumbai, NCR, Bangalore and Goa. The dealers appointed will be the sole retailers for Garware-Hyosung motorcycles, genuine parts and accessories and will operate authorized service centers across all cities in India. Garware Motors has plans to open 5 more dealerships in Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai, Ahmedabad & Chandigarh within next 2 months. During this introductory period offer, customers also get a ‘Welcome Kit’ which consists of a helmet, performance T Shirt, cool Glares, Leather Key chain & a Garware- Hyosung cap.

Garware Motors has also tied up with HDFC bank, India’s leading financier of two wheelers. HDFC bank would be providing retail finance to Hyosung customers at very attractive rates.

Past, Present & Global – The Bajaj Story

April 20, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

From 1945, when they first started selling imported two-wheelers in India, to the time they went public in 1960, to the now famous jingle “Hamara Bajaj’ with which they rode into the heart of every second middle class Indian, to the present times, the approximately Rs 12,000-crore Bajaj Auto, the flagship company of the Bajaj group, have straddled the two-wheeler segment like a colossus. Today, they are the second-largest motorcycle producer in the country, selling nearly four million vehicles annually and operating in more than 50 countries.

But they couldn’t keep riding the scooter. With economic liberalisation under Rajiv Gandhi taking the forefront and the opening up of the markets along with the growing needs of a youthful India, looking for faster and more powerful motorcycles, Bajaj Auto began production of motorcycles along with Kawasaki of Japan. Till companies like Bajaj Auto, Yamaha, Hero Honda and TVS started motorcycle production, there were just a few well known two-wheelers in the market – Yezdi, Rajdoot and Bullet.

What Bajaj did was to produce lesser cc variants but, keeping in mind the Indian youth’s thrill for speed, made them light, more fuel efficient and easier to manoeuvre in city traffic. However, the entry of the motorcycle into the Bajaj Auto fold also saw the demise of the ‘pot-bellied’ scooter of the Indian middle classes.

In 2005, after Rahul Bajaj inducted his younger son Rajiv as Managing Director Bajaj Auto, the latter brought in sweeping changes into the company and from the number of motorcycles it was producing it whittled down the different variants of just four – Pulsar, Discover, Platina and Enforcer. It also cut down on its huge number of dealers across the country. Today, apart from manufacturing motorcycles, Bajaj Auto also markets the more powerful Kawasaki two-wheelers in the Indian market.

S. Sridhar. President, Motorcycle Business, of the company, while giving a complete breakdown of the company’s motorcycle business, told Bike India that in the entry level commuter motorcycles, Bajaj sells around 40,000 units with a market share of 33-38 per cent . Then comes the deluxe segment where they sell between 1,25,000 motorcycles and lastly is the sports bike segment, where they sell around 80,000 units monthly. Within this segment is an emerging niche market comprising the 500-1000 cc bikes.

“These two categories are the ones that have a huge impact on the Bajaj Auto business and this is where we have Pulsar and Discover – the first as the sports category and the second as the commuter bike, says S. Sridhar.

Today Pulsar and Discover are Bajaj Auto’s biggest success stories in the last decade and these two motorcycles have accorded them the status of marker leaders. They began production of the Pulsar in 2001, when there was nothing called a sports bike. “It was a space shared by CBZ from Honda and Fiero from TVS and they sold just around 4,000-5,000 motorcycles between them,” says Sridhar. “When they launched Pulsar, at the end of the first year, Bajaj Auto did an average of 3000 bikes, but now they do an average of 65,000-75,000 of this brand. Today the industry share of sports bike segment bikes is 17 per cent of which Pulsar has a 50 per cent share. “

64 per cent in the commuter segment is completely dominated by Hero Honda. A couple of years ago they had complete monopoly with Splendor and Passion. But Bajaj then launched Discover. “Today we sell between 1 and 1.5 lakh Discover bikes in a month,” says Sridhar.

But it’s the development of international business in the last five to seven years, where Bajaj Auto have made waves. They have sold each one of the roughly one million motorcycles solely under the Bajaj brand. They have not manufactured motorcycles for anyone else to market under a different brand name anywhere else. Their distribution network in over 20-odd countries has slowly but steadily contributed to the growth of the Bajaj brand in the everyday use motorcycle space.

One has to keep in mind, though, that not everywhere in the world is the motorcycle used as a personal vehicle. It’s also used as a commercial carrier – a passenger taxi or a goods carrier in countries of Africa or Latin America. “At the very core customers abroad expect the same thing that customers in India expect, but in the personal segment we find there is more universality, with just a few differences at the fundamental level,” says Rakesh Sharma, President, International Business.

For example, he adds, in Latin America, buyers have more appreciation for style, as compared to India, while consumers in countries like Iraq where there is an abundance of oil, the issue of mileage is negligible. In a lot of countries fuel is 25 cents a a litre so there too mileage is not an issue. In other countries durability is preferred above all else, and where consumers have enjoyed Japanese products for a long time the expectation of the customer on quality issues is very high. They will have superior expectations on the paint job, the sound of the engine, the features etc.

But despite all these ‘expectations’ from the consumer, Bajaj have never felt the need to design a bike specifically for a country.

“Once a bike is designed in India , the homogeneity at the fundamental level ensures there is a very high probability of acceptance,” he says. But one does have to keep an eye open for the competition and that comes from two sources. The first are the Japanese comprising the big four – Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki and – the other are the Chinese, where there are probably a hundred companies with a thousand brands competing in the market in the space they are operating.

But Sharma avers that Bajaj’s focus has always been motorcycles for commuting. “These could be utility motorcycles for the daily commuter or the deluxe commuter or these could be sporty motorcycles, which follow an everyday format for the consumers,” he says, adding “We are not yet into motorcycles used for high-end sports which is where the Europeans rule the roost or at high end leisure like the Harleys.”

So in the everyday space, Bajaj face stiff competition from the Japanese and the Chinese. Region-wise, in Africa the competition is largely from the Chinese who basically operate on a price USP, while in Latin America they have to tackle both the Chinese and the Japanese. The Japanese operate on low investments, but with very solid brand names and quality products like the Indians. In south East Asia again, it is largely the Japanese. So to that extent competition is different.

Says Sharma, “We are able to prove to the consumer that he can take a handsome premium over the Chinese, and get a product that is far superior and durable and while dealing with the Japanese we tell them the product is as good on performance and superior in terms of features and styling, and still available at a slightly lower price.”

A revenue of little under one billion dollars and 1.2 million vehicles (around one million motorcycles and 200,000 three wheelers) this year, in exports, is proof enough that the strategy is succeeding. Asked how this measures up to the rest market in those countries, Sharma explains that they track the percentage of sales coming in from markets where they are either number one or two. “I would say 80 per cent of the one million bikes are coming from markets where we are No 1 or 2. So if I see our key markets, 40 per cent of our markets are in Africa, 25 per cent in Latin America and 35 per cent in South East Asia,” he explains.

Bajaj Auto are No 1 in Uganda, Kenya, Columbia, Central America, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, No 2 in The Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria and Peru and No 4 in Argentina. Not a bad start for a company that went into overdrive internationally with their motorcycles around 2004. (Bike India)

New Horizons for next gen Pulsar

April 19, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Developing new platform for motorcycles, says Bajaj

Further endorsing our report about the new Pulsar range, Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj confirmed to the media that it is developing an all-new platform that will churn out the next generation Pulsars and Discovers. The new bikes will hit the market by the second half of this fiscal. A couple of months ago we had reported that Bajaj is looking at launching a new Pulsar 200 based on the KTM Duke platform and Pulsar 250 on an all-new platform.

“After the launch of the new Pulsars and Discovers, some of the existing models will be replaced and some models will be discontinued,” Bajaj said. Bajaj Auto has a market share of 27 per cent at present, which could go up to 40–50 per cent post-launch of the new bikes, he added. Bajaj is also working on re-launching the Boxer, targeted at the rural markets, where Hero Honda Splendor is the market leader. The bike will be launched in the second quarter of this fiscal, said S Sridhar, President, Motorcycle Business at Bajaj Auto.

“Boxer will become a subset of the commuter bike Discover, a sort of an entry level bike to the commuter segment. However, Boxer will not be a 100cc bike and its price will be around that of Hero Honda Splendor,” he said. Bajaj also shared his company’s plan to bring in bikes from the KTM stable. Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV Netherlands, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Bajaj Auto, currently holds a 38.09 per cent stake in the Austria-based company. According to Bajaj, KTM has sold 65,000 bikes in 2010. Bajaj Auto has already started manufacturing the bikes in India and has shipped around 1,000 to 2,000 bikes to the European market, where it has launched Duke 125.

“The company will launch its first bike towards the end of the year. However, whether it will be Duke 200 or Duke 125 is yet to be decided,” said Bajaj. “KTM is more important to us in order to enter markets like Brazil, Malaysia and Thailand where brands like Honda and Yamaha are already dominating and these markets are mature. KTM will be our entry ticket to these mature markets,” he said. The company also clarified that it is not looking at the scooter segment right now.

Words: Saeed Akhtar

TVS’ shining StaR

April 18, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

TVS StaR crosses 30 lakh mark

TVS Motor Company recently announced that their 100-cc commuter TVS StaR has crossed the 30 lakh unit sales mark since its inception in 2004. TVS offers ‘TVS Assurance’ a 5-year, 50,000 km warranty on TVS Star range of bike, which includes Star, Star City and Star Sport.

Moreover, the successful and dependable captain who led the the Indian Cricket team to become the world champion, MS Dhoni, makes an inspiring brand ambassador for the popular city commuter.

Words: Gasha Aeri

Yamaha partners Deccan Chargers

April 13, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Two wheeler company India Yamaha Motor enters into a one year partnership with IPL franchise Deccan Chargers

Yamaha in now the official partner of IPL franchise Deccan Chargers (DC) and its logo will now be seen on all DC ads and promotions. Yamaha will have unlimited access to the name and logo of the IPL cricket team as well as images and signatures of a minimum of three of the team’s players. The company will also be able to use the players for promotions and advertisements for a period of two days. Apart from these benefits, a Yamaha logo will be put on the players’ helmets and caps.

With the cricket fever rising to maddening heights and being the most watched sport in the country what better way to advertise the Japanese company’s bikes and reach out to the potential customers? Other motorcycle makers are also joining the bandwagon, as Hero Honda is sponsoring Mumbai Indians and TVS Motors doing the same with Pune Warriors.

The association with DC may prove to be beneficial for Yamaha taking in account its strong presence in the Hyderabad market. Yamaha will also have ticketing benefits and hospitality entitlements at the teams home ground. Yamaha, known for its brand trustworthiness and DC being the 2009 champions it could well be a win-win situation for both the sides.

Words: Raymond Raj

InterGlobe ushers Vyrus, Hollister and Grinnall to India

April 8, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

InterGlobe Aviation, popularly known as owners of Indigo Airlines, brings in Vyrus, Hollister custombikes and Grinnall trikes to India

InterGlobe General Aviation transfigured its identity as InterGlobe Established Products PrivateLimited – THE ESTD and has brought a bunch of luxury and lifestyle products for the growingpopulation of high net worth individuals (HNIs) in India. The portfolio includes Italy based Vyrusbikes, Germany based Hollister Custom Motorcycles and U.K. based Grinnall. Nigel Harwood,President and CEO, THE ESTD, informed that he wishes to cater to the growing number of youngHNIs in India who seek thrill and adventure by representing a number of global luxury productmanufacturers in the country. Commenting on the arrival of Hollister bikes in the country, Harwoodannouced that its time for the current Harley Davidson bike owners in India to switch over to evenheavier Hollister custom motorcycles. Volker Sichler of Hollister Motorcycles expressed his happinessover being represented in India under the brand, THE ESTD. He disclosed that around 90 percentHarley owners in Europe spend an average of 10,000 euros in customising their bikes besides the costof the bikes. A handmade, base model of Hollister custom bike costs roughly 30,000 euros in Germany.Hollister displayed their Custom Twin Special which sported a stretched 16 liter fuel tank with a singleseat. According to Sichler, the bike could be customised and delivered to the customers in India within6 months of order. The Custom Twin Special is likely to cost over Rs 38 lakh including the importduties.

Also on the display was a Vyrus. They are known as a small scale sports bike manufacturer whichproduces only 2 models namely 984 and 985. The maker sources engines from Ducati (a 2 valve 992 ccand a 4 valve 999 cc for 984 and 985 respectively, both mated to a 6 speed gear box). Both the modelswould be available for sales in India and are expected to cost over Rs 20 lakh. Further, the brand wouldalso represent Grinnall trikes in India which are known to be built using engines from BMW. The trikescome with the options of 2 front wheels and a rear wheel as well as 1 front wheel and 2 rear wheels.Besides the bikes, brand The ESTD would also offer select super cars such as Koenigsegg, Gumpert,Deronda and luxury yachts and boats.

Words: Amit Panday

Forty Eight added to Harley fleet

April 5, 2011 by Bike India Team Leave a Comment

Harley Davidson has announced an addition to its present range of models this year

US motorcycle major Harley Davidson will be launching one more model in India, the Forty-Eight . With this addition the company will be to able cater to its ever growing fan following in India even better. The urban brawler will surely woo the customers with its power and performance. Introduced to the Indian market at Rs. 8,50,000 (ex-showroom Delhi) the motorcycle is available across all Harley Davidson dealerships in India.

The new Harley is a factory custom motorcycle on the lines of the traditional Sportster but with an appeal of the Dark Custom bikes. The bike sports a traditionally styled “peanut” tank exposing more of the rubber-mounted Evolution 1200cc V-Twin engine. The low solo seat, under-mounted mirrors, side mount license plate, clear rear fender all emphasize the Forty-Eights chiseled customization and add to the minimalistic look even as old school look meets the new school technology. Along with custom cool styling the motorcycle also has new front fork sliders, a beefy front tire provides a dominating front end with smooth ride and solid handling whereas slammed rear suspension gives confidence to riders of all sizes and experience. The forward foot controls will give an opportunity to kick back and stretch your legs as you cruise across the highways.