Bajaj Auto to Dive in Super Sports Bike Segment Soon

Seems that 47% share in Austria-based KTM Power Sports AG has empowered Bajaj Auto real strong. Also has strengthened the scope of KTM in India. With the merger, KTM has won a strong base in India already, which also has given Bajaj Auto a point above than the rest of Indian two wheeler manufacturers. Though not to forget is the upcoming merger between TVS and BMW Motorrad, and also the already signed deal between Hero MotoCorp and Erik Buell Racing. Bajaj along with its partner KTM Power Sports AG is now planning on launching bikes with high displacements, other than small bikes like Bajaj Boxer BM100, which is essentially a bike meant for Indian rural areas, or commuter bike like Bajaj Discover 125ST. These higher displacement bikes will be coming from the new base that KTM and Bajaj have built up in India. Soon there soon could be bikes in the super sports segment, with displacement going as high as 1200cc. And since the bikes are coming from the stable of KTM, we can rest assured that few of these bikes will be remarkable, high performance bikes known throughout the world.

Few months back, around four months to be exact, Bajaj Auto launched KTM Duke 200, which was very positively received by the consumers, with highly positive feedbacks. As concluded from the words of Bajaj Auto’s President of motorcycle section, Mr. K. Srinivas, the company is selling a total of around 1000 units each month since the launch. The prebookings of the bike have been equally exciting. With such positive response, Mr. Srinivas says that Bajaj still further looks forward to “exploit this super sports segment” with launching quite a few products in a row along with KTM. Though, they already are into production of such high performance bikes, all the production is being exported; exported to Japan and Europe, where KTM already has a strong network, and also in United States. As for the number game, KTM stands second, just behind BMW, in Europe. All that the Bajaj plus KTM has to do is export the completely knocked down (CKD) products. Now that they have earned pretty much goodwill in the international market, Bajaj Auto is hoping for a similar market in India too, completely roving through the super sports segment of India.

There are already two products from Bajaj Auto along with KTM, KTM Duke 200 and KTM Duke 125, which are being produced at Pune, the Chakan plant. More variants of KTM models are planned from this same unit. And probably the upcoming super sports bikes from Bajaj Auto will be manufactured at the Chakan unit, Pune. To be noted is the fact that the super sports bike segment in India is already growing leaps and bounds, as per the statistics, there has been a jump of around 40 percent in the growth rate of this segment in India. However, this stat is not as impressive if we look at the growth rates of other segments of two wheelers in our country. However, it still is satisfying for the international manufacturers and exporters too, since after the United States and Europe being totally stuffed of this range of motorbikes, economies like ours’ comes out as the best markets for further growth of manufacturers of super sports bikes.

We can see our country making its presence felt in the two wheeler industry throughout the world. Indian two wheeler market is one of the fastest growing markets of the world. And the top layer of the industry is well recognizing their future in India. With all the stats pointing towards a high capacity of producing reliable and high displacement bikes in the near future, many foreign two wheeler names are joining hands with India based two wheeler manufacturers. Bajaj has collaborated with Austria based KTM, Hero MotoCorp has been mated with Erik Buell Racing, now it is TVS Motors that soon be heading forward fiercely holding BMW Motorrad’s hands. When do we hear of such news from Yamaha? Or is the Japanese leader of two wheeler bikes confident of its single status?