In addition to sales of its off-roading vehicles, Polaris India is big on experiential events. It has close to 100 Polaris Experience Zones (PEZ) across the country where enthusiasts come and pay for driving these vehicles. But with the lockdown, PEZs were temporarily closed. Lalit Sharma, country manager, Polaris India, says that these are now opening gradually. In an interview with FE’s Vikram Chaudhary, he adds that defence, municipalities, coastal security, etc, are Polaris India’s major consumers.
How big are PEZs in terms of revenue for Polaris India?
The experiential part (PEZs) is just about 15-20%; we have other verticals that are independent of the lockdown, such as sales of specialised vehicles to army, paramilitary, municipalities, coastal security, etc. While PEZs were obviously closed during the lockdown, we saw sales also getting deferred. Tourism has taken a big hit, but I assume that in the next couple of months things should be back on track; people will start recreation activities hopefully by the end of this year. We have started some PEZs—depending on local regulations—with all the measures of social and physical distancing in place.
Which is your most popular product in the personal buyer segment?
While globally we offer more than 100 off-road vehicles, in India we offer some very specialised products, and the popular ones are our ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) called the Phoenix 200, Sportsman Touring 570 and RZR Turbo. We started receiving strong interest from personal buyers in the month of June itself, which continues into July.
Can your vehicles be used on public roads?
We recently launched the Sportsman 570 Tractor that has been approved by the government to be registered and ply on public roads as an agricultural tractor. But our vehicles, in general, are not designed for on-road usage. We don’t want to get into that segment.
Where do you import these vehicles from, and why don’t you make in India?
A majority of our vehicles come from the US; the tractor comes from Poland. We have done a lot of brainstorming on local manufacturing but have not been able to zero-in on it. I would say it’s an opportunity but we need a certain amount of volume to justify local manufacturing.
How and when did PEZs start?
At the 2012 Auto Expo we created a track, and offered experiential rides to about 7,000 customers. That strong consumer interest led us to start PEZs (owned and operated by our channel partners) where the customer pays for experience. The first PEZ came up in 2012, and now we have 100-odd experience zones across India.
