“The entry phase, which is the 100cc bike, continues to be below stress for the business as a complete,” MD Rajiv Bajaj mentioned in an interview to CNBC-TV18.
Consumers at “the underside of the pyramid” who had been hit by the COVID pandemic, job losses and rising petrol worth, will not be coming again, Bajaj mentioned.
Bajaj Auto has seven bike fashions within the entry phase between 100 and 125 cc, priced within the vary of 67,000 rupees ($805.26) and 107,000 rupees, per the corporate’s web site.
Gross sales of two-wheelers mirror the monetary well being of India’s rural economic system and demand within the nation’s largest consumption phase – the decrease and middle-income households – that’s battling a pointy rise in meals costs attributable to erratic monsoons. Bajaj, whose firm sells the favored Pulsar vary of bikes, attributed the waning curiosity in standard automobiles to the speedy take up of electrical automobiles and mentioned {that a} “disruptive motion” is required within the area. Each time somebody buys an electrical scooter, it comes on the expense of not solely inside combustion engine (ICE) scooters but additionally bikes, he mentioned. Bajaj additionally proposed that authentic tools producers develop compressed pure gasoline (CNG) two-wheelers alongside tax incentives from the federal government, hoping that this could “galvanise” entry-level clients.
The proposal comes as the federal government pushes for two-wheeler EVs to account for 70% of all two-wheeler gross sales by 2030, from 14% at present.
Bajaj Auto’s month-to-month home two-wheeler gross sales in August slumped 31%, whereas exports rose 2%.
