The two wheeler market will be hot soon with Bajaj to ramp up its production to meet the demand for its bikes, said its CEO. In tune with this move, the plant’s capacity will be increased from the current 2.75 lakhs to 3 lakh units a month he added. There are three plants with Bajaj as of now- Waluj near Aurangabad, Pantnagar in Uttarkhand and Chakan near Pune. The increase in production will vary from plant to plant, he said. The target for this year from Bajaj is 4 lakh bikes of which 3.6 million will be comprised by Discover and Pulsar range. The recently launched Discovery-150 is expected to romp in 30-35 thousand units and there will be two more variants in popular brands.
Discover-150 comes from Waluj and Pantnagar facilities. The company sees an increase in its market share of 17% with the launch of the Discover -150 (which may procure 5-6% increase. The bike, meeting the BS-III emission norms, is to cost Rs46000 and will be launched on phases in the country. Bajaj foresees an increase in its export market too from the current 60000 to 80000 this year. However, the company has no solution for the reduction of the waiting period of 3-4 weeks for the Pulsar brand. There is a strategy to reduce this wait period by increasing the production soon. There is no final word about the proposed sports bike Bajaj-KTM, though the alliance between them is making a good deal with Pulsar. The bikes under these deal are expected to hit the roads by 2011.