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Oct 23, 2006

6 Indian Two Wheeler Manufacturers Going Global

Recently I came across a blog by an American Chris Kauffman about two wheelers in India. On his business trip to India, Chris was quite shocked at the number of motorcycles in daily use in the City of Bangalore.
Bikers in Developed countries like in the U.S and most of the European countries ride bikes as a hobby. Their bikes are fast and very powerful. Most of my friends who have been either to the U.S or the U.K have narrated to me how very few bikes ply on the roads of these developed countries. And the ones that do ply are really powerful ones.

The situation is quite different in India. Here the two wheeler is used as a popular and daily mode of personal transport. Therefore attributes like "High Fuel Efficiency", "Low Maintenance Costs", "Reliability" are the main criteria on which customers purchase the two wheelers. This has made the manufacturers of these two wheelers churn out reliable two wheelers with quality comparable to the Japanese manufacturers.
In his blog Chris predicts how Indian two wheeler manufacturers are soon going to compete globally.


Well, actually India has already started to compete... the following is taken from the cover story published in Forbes Asia on Rajiv Bajaj the M.D of Bajaj Auto (India's leading exporter of two wheelers and second largest manufacturer in India)..

"Bajaj's next battleground is the overseas market. It will be a critical and uphill battle. Today Bajaj exports only 13% of its two-wheelers, and its global market share trails behind Honda, Yamaha, Harley-Davidson and Suzuki. Bajaj wants to be the world's third-largest player. To do that, Bajaj will have to export up to 1.5 million bikes--nearly as many as it sold in India last year--according to Rajiv's brother Sanjiv, who heads the company's export strategy. "If we miss the international opportunity over the next three to five years," says Sanjiv, 36, "someone else will take it."

Even TVS Motor Company, the third largest two wheeler manufacturer of India has won the prestigious Deming Quality Award and remarkably is the first two-wheeler company in the world to receive the award.

With companies like Hero Honda and Bajaj and TVS, the future seems to be bright for Indian Two Wheeler Industry..






Disclaimer:

This is to remind that the Views or Opinions in the blog are entirely mine unless explicitly stated. The Views and Opinions published in this blog should in no way be related to any other person or organization associated -- directly or indirectly -- with me.




6 Comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting blog. I wonder if big V-twins have a market in india. So far , everything seems to be geared toward single cylinder small displacement engines.

Vinod said...

by the way, my blog http://shadowcruiser1978.blogspot.com/

Payeng said...

Thanks for the encouragement guys..
It means a lot to me...



ezrider1978,

There is no V-Twin model available in India so far. The largest capacity is the 500 C.C single cylinder Royal Enfield.

But Harley Davidson actually is in talks with the Indian Govt. to lower its stringent emmision norms so that they can sell their bikes in India...!! Yes H-D is looking towards India to sell it's V-Twins..!!

This actually is good news for a lot of Big Bike enthusiasts with deep pockets.. It looks like there might a small number of niche bikers whom Harley is targetting..





Got ur blog Vinod.. am adding u in my Blogroll..

Varad More said...

nice blog der buddy.
http://www.petrosexual.blogspot.com

Payeng said...

Thanks Speedy..

Checked out your blog.. cool blog u got there.. especially like the new Hornet 600..!!



Tried to leave u a comment on ur blog.. but had problem in doing so..
Plz check if u have enabled comments in ur blog settings

Anonymous said...

useful information abt indian bike

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