The 100cc two wheeler segment has lot of wonders and funs among the makers. The segment, normally dominated by Hero Honda, is on the anvil of focusing the triumph of Bajaj. The latest entry Discover, has made the difference. Bajaj has the foray of rivals in Hero Honda and Honda Motorcycle but within the short span of nine of months, the wonder has happened. The bikes in this category from Hero Honda – 100 to 125cc- constitute 70% of the net two wheeler market. The top most selling bikes from Hero Honda are Splendor and Passion. Earlier Bajaj kept aloof from the bikes of 100cc due to the inability to penetrate the market. The company had to rely much on the popularity of its scooters. But over the years the market for Bajaj’s scooters has waned.
The revival of Bajaj with Discover was the talk of the town everywhere. With this it could wrest the market share, dominated by Hero Honda and TVS. By June, Bajaj could increase its share to 20% from the earlier 7.5%. this made the decline in the share of Hero Honda to 68% from 80%. The sale of Discover is around 75000-80000 units per month. However, Hero Honda maintains that its sale is still on the rise that it reached the millionth unit per quarter of fiscal 2009-10. The company is designing a new strategy to introduce new models for increasing the share. Bajaj had to come out with a valid reason for the customers to look upon its Discover, pushing away Splendor. This made Bajaj to give Discover a longer wheelbase, 5-speed gearbox and an air-filled nitrox suspension.
All these are familiar in performance bikes and Discover is no exception and the customers are too ready to get this bike at the same price of Rs42000. In addition Discover got the badge, an ally of the higher end 135cc bike priced for Rs50000. Self-start is a standard fitting, which Splendor does not offer. More important, Bajaj discovered the dearth in rural pockets, a stronghold of Hero Honda, and 40% of the sale of Discover is from this pocket. Whereas Hero Honda has 42% stake in rural areas.
Bajaj introduced more service stations in the country by increasing the number to 4500 from the existing 2500. For a town of 10000 population there is a service centre of bajaj. Normally there is a company service centre where the population is 200000+. There are 465 dealers in India who will be ably assisted by command area manager, whose prime job is to promote the products through word of mouth. To wrap more volume of sale, Bajaj has brought Bajaj Auto Finance to the rescue for the customers. The financial assistance procedures have been made easy and already 23% of the net sale of Discover is on the loans. This is a great relief, as the banks do not encourage two wheeler loans on default grounds.