Utility vehicle player Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Tuesday unveiled the name of its upcoming mass scooter model Gusto, which is expected to be launched early next week. The Gusto is M&M?s first scooter to be developed at the company?s R&D facility in Pune after it acquired Kinetic six years ago.
The company, which has been trying to make inroads in the two-wheeler space, said it will integrate the farm-equipment and the passenger vehicle dealerships to sell scooters alongwith tractors and Scorpios.
?We have about 500 exclusive two-wheeler outlets, which is a fairly good size in this market. In addition, we are looking to leverage our tractors and utility vehicle (UV) dealer network to sell two-wheelers,? said Rajesh Jejurikar, CEO (farm equipment & two-wheelers), M&M. ?There?s a high buyer overlapping in both rural and urban markets. Those looking to buy a SUV may also have a need for a scooter, similarly in rural areas the tractor owners are also two-wheeler buyers,? he said. M&M will integrate 150 dealers who will start retailing two-wheelers in the first phase. At least 120 of these dealers will be in the rural areas.
M&M is trying to build its two-wheeler portfolio extensively. In the pipeline are products in the motorcycle and the scooters segment. ?With Gusto, we would be able to plug the mass market gap where the belly of scooters segment resides,? said Viren Popli, chief (operations), Mahindra Two Wheelers. Rival Honda currently dominates the scooter segment.
Besides the domestic market, the company will push the Gusto for exports. It will first be launched in the northern and western markets of India and Nepal on September 29, followed by South Asia, Central America and Africa over the next months.
At a smaller base, the scooter segment has been growing faster than motorcycles over the last few years and currently contributes about 25% to the overall two-wheeler pie. As per Siam data, in the April-August period this fiscal, the domestic scooter market stood at 17,51,881 vehicles, a growth of 32% year-on-year. The total two-wheeler market during the period was 66,01,935 vehicles, a growth of 14.8% as last fiscal.
