India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero Honda is ready to bring yet another low cost bike to the Indian market. The new low cost bike will have significant price advantage over its contemporaries. "This (a low-price bike) has been on our horizon for a long time but we haven't been able to come up with a solution till now," Pawan Munjal, the company's managing director, said. “But this is not the end and we hope to come up with a solution... we continue to work on this." he added.
The company has shifted its focus now towards development of its rural market and the new bike is specifically targeted towards them. The company is ready to offer a low cost bike to this segment that can stand the test of performance and durability.
Hero Motors and the Japanese auto maker Honda share a long relationship as Hero Honda Motors in India. It has its third plant at Haridwar in Uttrakhand which enjoys a 10-year full excise duty exemption and full income exemption for the first five years of operation. The company expects healthy sales in this quarter as well. It has already posted net profits in the last quarter. Its dependency on financing has also come down to 20 percent in 2008-09 from 55 percent in 2006-07.
