Swaraj Baggonkar Moneycontrol News
TVS Motor’s Apache RR 310 sales are fizzling and flickering, so much that the Venu Srinivasan-led bike-maker produced just 351 units of the vehicle in July. Production has skidded to just a third of 983-unit sales peak it had hit in March, a dip that may push the company to have aggressive strategies to spur sales.
Sales of the Apache RR 310, which has been in the market for about 8 months now, have been flagging month on month, data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturer (SIAM) shows. The company had given an annual guidance of selling 10,000 units of the bike, or 833 units a month, in the first year of launch. Average monthly sales for Apache RR 310 since December launch have been only 416 units.
TVS has to now ramp up sales nearly four times to meet that target with minimum sales of 1,333 units a month in the next four months.
A questionnaire sent to TVS Motor Company last Thursday seeking the reasons behind the fall in numbers remained unanswered at the time of publishing this article.
TVS Motor retails Apache RR 310 through a limited line of dealerships and the plan to extend it to more dealerships rests solely on a pick-up in volumes through existing sales outlets.
Within four months after its launch TVS raised prices of the Apache RR 310 by nearly 9 percent to Rs 2.23 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
Market watchers point out that usually prices of new models remains untouched for the first six months at least. Even if prices are raised due to raw material cost pressures it is usually in the range of 1-3 percent going by the industry norm.
The Apache RR 310 uses a single cylinder, 312cc engine that generates peak power of 34ps. In comparison Bajaj Auto’s touring bike Dominar sports a bigger displacement and slightly more powerful engine (35ps) and is priced cheaper at Rs 1.48 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The Dominar, so far this calendar year, has seen monthly sales run rate of nearly 1600 units, as per SIAM data. The KTM RC 390 uses the same Dominar engine but produces more power at 43ps and is priced nearly on par with the Apache RR310 at Rs 2.25 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The premium bike segment is getting crowded with almost every company rushing in to grab a pie of it. While sales numbers are small at the moment the segment has shown a strong growth since the last several quarters.
The Apache RR 310 is a result of a four-year long joint product development between TVS Motor Company and German two-wheeler giant BMW Motorrad. The latter has already rolled out two bikes — G 310 R and G 310 GS — into the domestic market and promises to roll out more products at later stages.
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