Competition in the motorcycle segment of Indian automobile market is stiffening day by day as players like Honda, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp have been performing really well in the past few months. The competition between Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp, in particular, is quite intense as both fight for gaining a majority of the market share. Bajaj Auto recently introduced a new model from Discover series, called 100 M. Notably, Discover has been a successful series for Bajaj Auto as it is doing well consistently since its introduction. According to sources, this is an attempt from the firm to challenge dominance of Splendor, Hero MotoCorp's best selling bike. Designed on a new platform, Discover 100 M, as per experts, could prove to be a master stroke from Bajaj Auto.
Speaking about the prospects of Discover 100 M, K Srinivas, President for Motorcycle Business at Bajaj Auto, was quoted as saying, "The Discover 100 M is the game changer for us, it should bring us big volumes. We had the presence at the entry level of 100 cc with Discover 4G and a top end of 100 cc Discover 100T. With the Discover 100 M, we are bridging the gap of the value segment which accounts for over 45 per cent of the overall motorcycle market."
Industry experts feel that Bajaj Discover 100 M could end up generating tremendous sales as there is a lot of demand in the segment. Statistics and reports claim that mid price value segment has a share of around 75 per cent in the number of 100 cc motorcycles sold in the Indian auto market. Incredibly, these bikes have registered average sales of around 3.78 lakh units per month over the past half year. Comparing statistics of Bajaj Discover and Hero Splendor for first half of current fiscal year, the latter has outperformed the former by quite some distance. According to figures, Hero MotoCorp sold, on an average, 1.7 lakh Splendor bikes as compared to 85000 units of Bajaj Discover. The decision of buyers, eventually, come down to the pricing of a vehicle, if they have to choose between two similar models. Therefore, even in this case, customers are likely to go for the product that has a lower price.
Hero MotoCorp, on the other hand, is pretty confident about its products and their ability to dominate the market. At a recent event, officials from the firm, using statistics, spoke about how the motorcycle market is dominated by its models. Sounding pretty confident, the official spoke about how bikes from their firms have outperformed rivals, such as the Bajaj Discover series. Some analysts have tried to fathom the kind of effect Discover 100 M might have on the market share. According to some, it is quite difficult to choose between models from Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj and Honda as far as fuel economy is concerned. It is also being said that Honda and Bajaj have gained a sizeable share in the past few years while Hero MotoCorp was in a transformation phase. Now, since it has made a comeback, it is likely to dominate the market with the new Splendor.
