Bajaj Auto’s Rajiv Bajaj has crowned Royal Enfields as the most beautiful motorcycles and this is something that we haven’t seen often…
Bajaj has reported a great run in festive sales, according to the company’s MD Rajiv Bajaj. Alongside a sales call, a CNBC TV18 host posted a rapid fire round of questions to the Pune based maker’s head. One of the questions was –
What is your favorite motorcycle, apart from the ones that are sold under the Bajaj moniker or the Husqvarna or the KTM?
Here is Rajiv’s answer in his own words,
I was going to say Husqvarna because I love them but you have countered that out. So… as you said, I don’t pull any punches so I will tell you very candidly, I think Royal Enfield is the most beautiful motorcycle.
To call a rival maker ‘the most beautiful‘ is a very candid admission by a company’s Managing Director. I do not think we would have seen something of this sort very often.
He also admitted that despite major initiatives against the Chennai based rival, nobody has really been able to put a dent on its sales. He was answering this to the good response the Triumph brand has received – which Bajaj is making and selling in India.
Bajaj has often tried to take a dig at Royal Enfield and its products. One such incident was the ‘Haathi Mat Paalo‘ campaign for the Dominar that related the issues of Royal Enfield motorcycles to domesticating an elephant. However, it just created a lot of hype but did not translate to a lot of sales (for the Dominar).
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Another recent incident was when Bajaj admitted that he is very interested in Royal Enfield’s market and equated it to a bank because that is where all the money is! To this Siddharth Lal responded that ‘it will not be very easy for robbers to penetrate…!‘
Rajiv had also admitted that Siddharth Lal (Head of Eicher Motors, parent company of Royal Enfield) is a friend and all of this rivalry was in good taste.
