Bajaj auto plans to strength its presence in global markets along with Kawasaki and KTM brands. The company has already made its presence in Philippines by assembling its bikes in Kawasaki plant with the marketing looked after by the Kawasaki outlets. Bajaj would, thus save investment and at the same time can capitalize on the partners image. Presently Bajaj markets Kawasaki ranges of Ninja 250R in India, a CKD at Rs2,69,970 (ex-showroom New Delhi).
The current sale of this bike is 60 and the annual target is 1000 units. Bajaj has already invested for this production and the next move is to promote more probiking showrooms (from 24 to 30 in select 22 cities). Another CKD bike KTM (1000cc) will soon be launched and there will be normal range bikes in 125-150cc sector. Bajaj is quite satisfied with its performance in the first quarter and hopes to improve in the next quarter. The boost came in the form of Discover 100cc -50000 units sold in August followed by 71000 units in September.
However, the net sale of Discover brand is 94000 units in September (Discover 100cc contributing the lion’s share). By taking an erroneous step of small bikes, the company diverted its fortunes but now the strategy is clear to rule the rooster. As for the small car project, the company is not in a position to reveal any information from the Renault to replace M&M. But the company is firm on making sedan and small car with Renault, and the project may get its due before 2011.