While the mass motorcycle market in the country has seen a de-growth in sales in FY13, the premium bike sales have been growing and remained largely unaffected by the external environment.
Demand for premium bikes, priced from R1 lakh and upwards, is growing in the country. There is a problem of demand outstripping supply. The 250cc Ninja bike?s demand outstripped supply in the Indian market.
Bajaj Auto, launched the Kawasaki Ninja 300 in Pune on Wednesday to strengthen their position in the premium bike segment. The Kawasaki Ninja 300 is priced at R3.50 lakh and the Ninja 300 replaces and improves upon the Kawasaki 250R.
Learning from its experience in India, Japanese motorcycle maker, Kawasaki, has worked on supply issues.
Kawasaki has scaled up production so that adequate bikes can be supplied to their partner, Bajaj Auto, which distributes and markets the Kawasaki sports bikes in India. ?We will introduce many Kawasaki products in the country,? Yuji Horiuchi, representative, India Kawasaki Motors, said.
While Bajaj Auto launched the Ninja in India, a Kawasaki team is working on fine tuning Bajaj?s Pulsar NS at Chakan. The Pulsar with a Kawasaki badge will be launched by Kawasaki in the Indonesian markets. The Bajaj-Kawasaki partnership met with success in the Philippines market and now they are working together to tap the Indonesian market, Bajaj said. Further discussions are on to tap major motorcycle markets such as Brazil, he said.
Bajaj remained unfazed with the entry of BMW along with TVS Motors in the premium motorcycle segment. Bajaj said competition would always be there and Kawasaki was competing with BMW all over the world and the Ninja brand enjoyed a tremendous position in the market.
Horiuchi said a lot of features from bigger supersport bikes have been incorporated into the 300cc Ninja so it looks like the big Ninja bikes while providing for everyday convenience. Around 3,000 units of the Kawasaki bikes have been sold in India. Bookings for the Ninja 300cc bike has started and deliveries begin at the Bajaj Probiking showrooms.
Kawasaki has also started sourcing components for the Ninja motorcycle from India, Horiuchi said.
They have started sourcing head lamps and tail lamps from the Minda Group in India and are working on sourcing suspension parts. These sourcing are for the 300 cc bike as well as for other bikes being sold in the Europe and other markets, he said. Kawasaki has started with sourcing of about 10% of the bike from India and would be increasing sourcing from India.