The #BajajPulsarNS400Z fills the need for a high-performance street bike, according to #BajajAuto CEO Rakesh Sharma.
Here's what he has to say about the company's latest bike offering.
Here's what he has to say about the company's latest bike offering.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Hello and welcome to Energy Prophet. Joining us today is Mr. Rakesh Sharma. He is the Executive
00:04 Director of Bajaj Auto. He is speaking with us after the launch of the biggest Pulsar
00:08 yet, the Pulsar NS 400Z. To talk to us more about the motorcycle and the segment that
00:13 it operates in. Sir, welcome to Energy Prophet. Thank you very much.
00:18 So, why a Pulsar 400 now? You already have a Dominar 400, you have a KTM 390 Duke as
00:23 well as a Speed 400. So, what was the rationale behind launching a Pulsar 400 at this point
00:29 of time? Foremost, you know, ever since NS series was launched in Pulsar and met with
00:39 a lot of success, particularly amongst people who wanted high performance motorcycling.
00:45 There has been a big requirement from the fans of the, when are you getting a bigger
00:53 Pulsar? Actually, even though we did not release the information about it being a 400, the
00:58 market and the users, customers had already guessed it that there is going to be an NS
01:04 400Z. So, that was the foremost thing. Second is that we felt that there is a need and there
01:14 is an open space right now over here for high performance street biking to bring high performance
01:22 to everyday use. If you see the Dominar 400 is more of a sports tourer, it is for longer
01:29 rides, you know, it has got a longer wheelbase, it is heavier, it has got, it has been positioned
01:36 for people who would be okay using it in the city, but really would be wanting to take
01:41 trips, weekend trips, longer trips. The KTM brand is more edge of the seat, very high
01:50 level of thrill, takes expertise to manage a Duke 390 or a RC 390 kind of a thing. With
02:00 the Pulsar NS 400Z, we and its price of 1,85,000, we bring, you know, high performance everyday
02:11 biking, street biking within the grasp of the, of a wider audience. So, essentially
02:19 affordable power to the masses is that was the theme of the Pulsar so far. What are the
02:24 expectations from this Pulsar 400? We have seen a pretty great reception from the audience
02:31 today. What are the expectations from this particular motorcycles in terms of the sales
02:35 in India, its exports and where are you making and how many numbers this particular motorcycle
02:40 has sold? So, you know, we do not have a volumetric and precise expectation. The first thing which
02:51 has driven us to do this is to be faithful and true to the Pulsar brand value of always
02:57 trying to do something better and constantly, you know, widening the envelope. If you see
03:06 for the last 24 years, there are a lot of firsts which are to the credit of Pulsar,
03:12 whether it is even something like a simple disc brake which has become very, very usual,
03:16 but when it was not, it was a first from Pulsar, starting from there and triple spark, four
03:21 valves and all those things. There are many, many oil cooling, projector headlamps and
03:27 tubeless tires, even stuff like that. So, the first thing is that we wanted to continue
03:33 to demonstrate to so many of our users and fans that there is a thrusting forward, constant
03:41 thrusting forward in the brand and there is a vitality when you introduce something like
03:49 that. So, it is and then the second point is that when we compare the penetration of
03:57 high end biking in India with other countries, even for example, I take Nepal, the presence
04:06 of performance biking in Nepal is as a percentage of the total motorcycle industry is far greater
04:13 and if you compare it with Latin American countries, countries with similar purchasing
04:16 power, you will see that there is a lot of higher level of use of these class of bikes
04:23 and we feel that by making it, making high performance biking at this pricing available
04:28 to a wider audience, hopefully the category will also develop and it will give us the
04:33 encouragement and the reason to then continue to place more products.
04:40 And I would say this would also still be applicable in a few, in many countries of LATAM and Europe,
04:48 etc. And of course, then finally it adds to the share and to the volumes also.
05:02 Extending the conversation to the Pulsar brand itself, how much does the Pulsar brand contribute
05:05 towards Bajaj Auto's revenue and sales as of FY24, if you can tell us something more
05:11 about that?
05:13 So because we have tended to focus on the upper half, which is where of the demand pyramid
05:20 in India and I would say about 75% of our business volume comes from the Pulsar brand
05:28 and a lot more on the bottom line side. We don't get into brand-wise profitability, but
05:36 I can tell you the volume itself is 75%. So you can see that it is really, really the
05:41 heart of the company.
05:44 Now let's talk about the category. How large is the middleweight opportunity, this 400cc
05:49 plus segment or 400cc segment? We know we have well-entrenched players in the market.
05:54 Most of them are say retro, you're playing the sports segment. So what is the market
05:59 opportunity for you for these kind of motorcycles?
06:04 So I would say, I would take it, let's say 300 to 500cc range, not only 350cc or whatever.
06:12 But in that range today, approximately 100,000 bikes get sold per month, out of which about
06:20 70%, which is 70,000 are what you said retro or let me say classic styling, which is more
06:28 about styling and very easy riding. And 30%, which is about 30,000, 32,000 units per month
06:37 are about performance biking.
06:40 If I look at these two sub-segments, then the performance biking segment over the last
06:45 five years is growing at a CAGR of 15% per annum. And the classic segment is growing
06:53 at 2% or 3%. So even though the size of the performance biking in this middleweight category,
07:03 as you called it, is right now 30%, but I think it will continue to grow, shared by
07:08 as more and more customers, youthful, you know, India, the demographics is on the side
07:14 of people wanting performance and the thrill. So that certainly is something which that
07:24 is the way.
07:25 Final two questions. In the press conference, we actually saw, you talked about the dual
07:32 pronged strategy for Bajaj. Can you just talk to us a little bit more about that particular
07:37 strategy?
07:38 It's nothing really more than the fact that the dual pronged strategy allows us to aim
07:48 for the bottom half of the pyramid, which is largely driven by the mileage conscious
07:59 customer and the upper half. And as you go up and up in the upper half, it's more about
08:05 performance biking.
08:06 So what is being said is that to be successful in the motorcycle business, you will have
08:11 to take a binocular approach of being able to engage with the customer through products
08:19 and brands, which make sense to a mileage conscious customer and with products and brands,
08:26 which makes sense to a customer who's in the very high performance end as well.
08:33 How does electric mobility fit in that particular strategy?
08:35 Well, electric mobility at this point of time, I would still say is very, in at least two
08:42 wheelers, is very functionally and is very economic driven. There is a segment of people
08:50 who like its convenience and who like the fact that it is environment friendly. But
08:57 I would say it is dominated by people who are adopting electric to save their monthly
09:04 fuel bill. And so I would put it in that segment. And it's easiest for the scooter user because
09:14 the driving patterns are known, the distances are short, and multiple uses there within
09:20 a family.
09:21 So we see the phenomena of electric scooters cannibalizing ice scooters. And of course,
09:29 we are drawing some customers also from mileage conscious motorcycle customers, but largely
09:36 from the scooter segment.
09:40 Finally, the last question, what can we expect from Bajaj Auto in FY25? You have already
09:45 had a record setting year in FY24. In terms of sales, will your numbers will still be
09:51 industry beating like it was in FY24?
09:55 I hope so. That is what our aspiration is to deliver a better FY25 than FY24, which
10:04 like you said, it was a record breaking year. And we want to better that and we want to
10:12 continue to outpace the industry.
10:15 Thank you so much, Sarvesh, for speaking with us. Thank you for tuning in. This is Tushar
10:19 for NTV Profit.
10:20 [Music]