Bajaj not to ride scooters in India

Once a household name for scooters in India, Bajaj Auto Ltd on Tuesday said it has no plans to re-enter the segment it exited more than five years ago, even as scooter sales grew faster than motorcycles in the last eight years.

Bajaj's absence from the scooter market at a time when others have launched multiple products, alongwith a sluggishness in the mobike segment in India, has seen it being relegated to the fourth spot behind TVS Motor in the two-wheeler market in 2014-15. Sales fell 15.6% to 1.77 million units during 2014-15, at a time when the industry grew 8.1% to 16 million units per annum.

"We have no plans to reenter the scooter segment. The Chetak is not coming back," said Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto Ltd. "We are a specialist motorcycle manufacturer. The history of companies worldwide shows that very successful companies were those that focussed on only one thing."

The rebuttal by Bajaj comes at a time when the company was rumoured to have developed an automatic scooter with its patented DTS-i engine technology.

The company instead has expanded its Pulsar range of mobikes that has helped it consolidate its position in the premium end of the market over the years. The two new models under the Pulsar Adventure Series — AS 150 and AS 200 are priced at ₹ 79,000 and ₹ 91,550 (exshowroom Delhi), respectively.

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