“Humara Bajaj” has been known to all Indians for as long as they can remember. Now Bajaj Auto is planning to stop its scooter production and concentrate on motorcycles. It comes as a surprising revelation that Bajaj scooters may fade into oblivion, as the company has confirmed that it will be exiting the scooter segment soon and concentrate only on the motorcycle segment.

“This is a definite watershed moment, because it’s almost like detaching ourselves from what constitutes middle class India, and the set of values that constituted middle class India,” says Santosh Desai, MD and CEO of Future Brands and a marketing and advertising expert.

Lowe India created the first jingles of Humara Bajaj commercials. Now the CEO of the agency, R Balki, says, “There was a time for horse carriages, and there’s a time for bikes. Today, the bike symbolises middle class India.”

Bajaj’s scooter Chetak was once the highest selling scooter in the world. It had waiting period of years but then things changed when motorcycles surged and later when Honda came out with automatic and gearless scooters. Today, Honda sells nearly 6 lakh units in a 10 lakh units overall market. The Bajaj company has already stopped production of Chetak since past three years. Now it will stop production of its Kirstal series by the end of current financial year.