Indian Motorcycles Continue Expansion
No, we are not talking American Indian here, we’re talking that growing Superpower: India.
For those that still scoff at the somewhat dated ranges of small capacity machines that are the staple of the Indian market, think again. Things look spookily similar here to the situation 40 - 50 years ago when the British, European and American’s ruled the motorcycle roost and the japanese produced, well, small capacity machines mainly for their home market.
Bajaj Motorcycle, one of the Indian sub-continent’s largest home producers, registered growth at 35%. This took the Bajaj Motorcycle market share to an all time high of approximately 33.1% in February`06. Bajaj CT 100 at 80,683 units continued to lead the price segment, as did the Bajaj Pulsar DTS-i twins and the Bajaj Avenger DTS-i at 33,995 units in the performance segment. The Bajaj Discover twins at 58,761 units continue to experience greater demand than supply.
The capacity expansion to 250,000 motorcycles/month by April`06 will coincide with launch of a new value segment motorcycle during this month. The company expects to sustain strong 3-wheeler & export performance in future. The company`s board will meet on Friday 10th March ‘06, to consider sales and financial targets for the next Financial Year.
Once again, this mirros the japanese expansion of the mid 20 century. With a solid base created by a healthy home market, financially sound and thrusting companies looking around for further business expansion by sizing up foreign markets as their means to that end.
The Japanese may not be as weak in R&D as the British but there’s already signs of overcapacity and a struggle to compete on cost terms, hence the shift of manufacturing and component supply outside of Japan to places like China and India. There’s sure to be an intense battle for the huge American motorcycle market in a decade or so.
(this article was taken from insidebikes.com)