After being in the news for some wrong reasons of late, Bajaj is back with some positive post-launch success stories. At Facebook, they have proudly announced sales of 30,000 Pulsar Adventure Sports and we are in the fourth month after its launch in April this year.
But closely looking at it, are the sales ‘as per expectations‘? This figures average out to about 7500 motorcycles a month. Consider that it also includes the smaller Pulsar AS150 which costs lesser.
Now let us flip some pages of the SIAM sales report we have and try and understand the holistic picture…
- Cumulative (April to July) sales of Bajaj’s 150ccs (which includes Pulsar LS135, Pulsar 150, Discover 150 twins and Pulsar AS150) were down marginally.
- However, with total sales of 43,697 units between April and July, Bajaj’s 200 ccs witnessed an emphatic 30 percent increase. This includes Pulsar AS200, Pulsar RS200, KTM Twins and Pulsar 180.
- The biggest pointer, however, is this – It was expected that new Pulsars will affect sales of Pulsar 220, which has been a strong performer for the brand. However, Bajaj has managed to arrest any major slide in their over 200 cc motorcycles. Sales stood at 9564 units last month in July (as compared to 9763 units in July 2014) and with 33,328 unit sales this financial year (Apr to July), they are only about 3000 units down till now. These sales figures include Pulsar 220 and Avenger.
We draw out the following conclusions from this –
- Sales of AS200 and AS150 have NOT been really ground-breaking and if you ask us they are below our expectations.
- However, if you look at the bigger picture, Bajaj has managed to improve their 200 cc motorcycle sales significantly at the same time holding on to the strong sales of their 220 ccs.
- The 150 cc segment is going down but Bajaj has the new Pulsar NS150 ready for launch, which should bring back the lost ground.
With time, Bajaj would want to shed dependence on the older generation Pulsars, including the Pulsar 220, and bridge the gap with their newer products. But considering the craze for their older Pulsars, we do not see this happening very soon…
