Launch of 100cc motorcycle to aid mkt share: Bajaj Auto

India's second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, Bajaj Auto reporte 1 percent decline in November sales due to sluggish demand for motorcycles and a fall in export numbers. The company's two-wheeler sales stood at 3.27 lakh units while its three-wheeler sales were recorded at 45,500 units.

Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director of Bajaj Auto told CNBC-TV18 that November sales have met expectations. He informed that Discover and Pulsar contributed 68% to the two-wheeler sales figure. Bajaj further added that Hero MotoCorp's market share has dropped to 48.5% from 54%.
Bajaj Auto is ready to launch its 100cc motorcycle in January and it is expected to aid its market share, opined the MD. Here is the edited transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18. Q: How are things looking for this month and what have you aimed to do in terms of the year-end sales target?
A: November sales have met expectations. We have experienced good sales. Our sales have been about 327,000 motorcycles. So that is flat year-on-year (YoY) in terms of our billing to dealers. Three-wheeler sales are up about 7 percent to 45,500 vehicles. Total sales are about 372,000 vehicles. Q: Can you just break that up between models as well with specific reference to what happened with Discover and Discover 125?
A: Yes, certainly. We have about 60,000 of the Boxer last month, we have about 44,000 of our Platina and those two account for about 100,000 units. Discover continues to do very well, 150,000 units of the Discover brand and the Pulsar along with the Avenger and KTM bring it up to about 75,000 vehicles. In terms of the mix also, it has been very good for us because the Discover and Pulsar together account for about 68 percent of our sales. Q: Did you say 327,000 units in terms of motorcycles? That number does not look too high, is there any fear that post Diwali, the momentum might be flagging more than you expected?
A: Yes, I did say 327,000 motorcycles in the domestic and also the retail market. I think what we are seeing here is stock correction at the end of a festive season. For example, out of these 327,000 units, exports were 100,000 units, domestic motorcycle billing was 227,000 units but, domestic retail was exactly 300,000 units. There is a stock reduction of 73,000 motorcycles there. Otherwise, at the retail level, the sales have been very good.
_PAGEBREAK_ Q: How exactly does market shares split up right now because we hear that Honda has been making a serious dent in the market including for your core competitor Hero Motocorp?
A: Yes. For market share, I would consider a slightly broader period. I would take the period of September over a November year-on-year (YoY) because last year, the festive season came a month earlier and that tends to skew manufacturer billing. 
If you were to look at the September-October-November period, the domestic market shares for the manufacturers are about 27 percent for Bajaj last year and it is a shade over 27 percent this year. We have gained about 0.3 percent market share which is not very much.
To the best of my knowledge, based on the facts I have, Hero is down from over 54 to about 48.5 percent. Therefore, there is a big loss of market share there and Honda has gained that with perhaps people moving from Hero to the 100 CC bike of Honda. Honda's market share has moved up 5 percentage points from 7.5 to 12.5 percent. So those are the market shares for the three major motorcycle manufacturers. Q: It is early days yet but, what can you say about the kind of volume trends you are expecting to see going into next year given the environment you were just discussing?
A: I would still say that one should not judge Monday morning by the Saturday night party. What I mean is that the party is over. October and November is done, nothing has changed incrementally. I think December onwards the industry will again witness a relatively flat and difficult situation. The only way to grow volume then would be to grow market share.
Our strategy would be to do that through the launch of a new 100cc motorcycle in January. So far this year we have been defending our strong positions by launching the new 200cc Pulsar and a new 125cc Discover. It was important for us to first protect what we have. Now, we are going to enter into the 100cc space.
 
Honda has done that a little before with the Yuga. We are going to have a new 100cc motorcycle in the market from January. We think it is the most advanced 100cc bike in the world. It will certainly be the most expensive in this market but, we think consumers are ready and willing to take it. In fact, they are aspiring to move up to something like that. In our case, we are hoping that this product is going to drive sales and market shares from January onwards.