Mobike majors are going green

NEW DELHI: The two-wheeler industry is slowly but surely moving towards green fuels.

Sector big daddy Bajaj Auto on Sunday let the cat out of the bag when managing director Rajeev Bajaj said the company was working on two-wheelers that will have twin engines -petrol and CNG/LPG. The first such vehicle would be launched next year.

“Everyone is working on vehicles that run on alternate fuels. While do not believe there is any market at present for two-wheelers that run on electric batteries, we are indigenously developing products that will run on CNG and LPG. These vehicles will have a small gasoline engine besides the CNG/LPG kits,” Bajaj said.

Will the vehicles be priced lower than existing petrol variants? Bajaj says no. “CNG/LPG two-wheelers cannot be cheaper. But yes, they should offer much lower running costs compared with existing vehicles.”

Pune-based Kinetic is planning two vehicles that will run on electric batteries.

Sources said while one variant will be a short-range vehicle having motor power of up to 3 kw and a range of 30 km before needing a recharge, the second one would be a full-sized scooter.

It will have motor power of a maximum of 5 kw and a range of up to 60 km. Both these vehicles are expected to be commercially available sometime next year.

Other two-wheeler manufacturers too are gearing up for the green brigade.

Says P S Sunder, head, marketing at Hero Honda, “In the long term, we want to be prepared for the changing market dynamics and the advent of two-wheelers powered by CNG and LPG. In any case, our joint venture partner Honda is already looking at this segment from a global perspective”.

TVS Motors’ vice-president marketing Prasad Narasimhan declined to divulge his company’s plans, he did acknowledge that “consumers are increasingly getting sensitive about rising petrol prices”.

Some years back, TVS had showcased the prototype for an LPG-run vehicle but the product was never commercially launched.

Says Anang Dev Jena, head at Synovate India Motoresearch, “The trend is picking up. I believe over the next 4-5 years, as much as 20% of the two-wheeler market could be cornered by vehicles that run on alternate fuel.”

Meanwhile, in a bid to retain its grip on the executive segment of the motorcycle market, Bajaj Auto today launched 100 cc Platina.

It already has a successful presence in the 100 cc segment through CT-100, selling about 80,000 units per month, but decided to launch Platina due to falling margins.

Acknowledging that margins for CT-100 have been under pressure, Bajaj Auto managing director Rajeev Bajaj said “CT-100 is as profitable as any 100 cc bike, but we saw that competition was under-pricing us over the last few months. This led to the conceptualisation of Platina. Over a period of time, we expect 50% of CT-100 consumers to shift to Platina but overall the company will retain its lead in the executive segment.”

The base version of Platina is priced at Rs 34,000, while the high-end version comes for Rs 36,000 (both priced ex-showroom Delhi).

Bajaj said that the company had deliberately reduced prices of CT-100 a few months back, bringing them down to about Rs 32,000, so as to create space for the new launch. For the first month, the company is targeting sales of about 50,000 Platina and hopes to touch 75,000 vehicle mark soon after.