New-Gen Pulsar launch has come in with a fair bit of masala with it as you have have already read. But this is a candid admission by the MD…
It was in 2001 when Bajaj introduced the first ever Pulsars in the market – a duo – 150 and 180. The USP of these models was that they offered ‘thrill’ at a very attractive price point.
Ever since then it has been a roller coaster ride for the brand with Pulsar transitioning the Pune based maker into a motorcycle-only company. So much so that it exports half of its produce to other countries of the world now. And there is no one even at a far distance at the moment.
There were various models and updates but the next generation model came around 2012 – the NS200. It was followed by the RS200 but these were based on the shared KTM platform. These are tech loaded extremely fast machines by segment standards, however, they are costly and because of a few technical limitations they are not very strong in the lower and low-mid range.
And for this or some other reason, these models have not been accepted ‘as well’ as the older-gen Pulsars in the market. This is the biggest reason why we still see the oldies like the Pulsar 220, 150, 180, etc on the roads holding the baton of the Pulsar brand – in almost the same design language, frame, etc as it was two decades back.
And now, in 2021, Bajaj has officially announced the launch of the next-generation of Pulsars – incidentally the biggest ever for the sub brand.
After BIG Slash Dominar 250 Price Starts Increasing Again
At the official introduction, Rajiv Bajaj admitted that they are almost three years late with the new Pulsars and these should have come earlier. It was the KTM-Bajaj relationship that the company was focusing on that caused the delay.
We are 3 years too late with the new Pulsar..
He also said that a part of this extra time can also be attributed to the fact that the company wanted to actually do an all-new product. As far as we have been told the new Pulsars have nothing in common with the KTM-Bajaj joint platforms – and that means that the engine, frame and most other bits have been developed ground up, specifically for this new generation models.
Pulsar 250 Deliveries from Mid November Onwards
Pulsar is an extremely important brand for Bajaj and in fact, Rajiv Bajaj admits that the basis of the company is ‘Pulsar’. But what do you think – things would have been different had these new Pulsar 250s come in around 2017-18…?