The company will convert its scooterette Kine, a model whose sales are expected to be impacted by Flyte, into an electric bike. Also on the cards is a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered vehicle.

Kinetic Motor Company''s latest launch, the 125cc Flyte, priced at Rs.36,499 (ex-showroom in Chennai) is expected to eat into the markets of its other models like the 72cc Kine a scooterette priced at Rs.27,500 Nova 135 priced at Rs.38,500 and 4S sold at Rs.38,000.

Flyte belongs to Taiwanese company SYM and last year the Indian company had entered into an agreement to make and sell the vehicles here. SYM has taken 11 per cent stake in Kinetic Motor Company.

The Indian company has also entered into an agreement it Italjet of Italy to make its models in India for the Indian market. Already the company has launched a premium end scooter called Blaze priced at Rs.58,950.

Interestingly Kinetic Motor Company has plans to launch a new 135cc scooter belonging to Italjet sometime soon. The model is named as Euro.

Speaking about the cannibalisation of the company''s own models by the Indian made foreign vehicles Ajinkya Firodia, senior vice president- Sales & Marketing says, "We expect Flyte to eat into the sales of our existing scooter/scooterette models to the tune of 30 per cent. However in volume terms Flyte will more than compensate the loss."

According to him around 6,000 electric bikes are imported and sold in India. "We will give a made in India electric scooter."

Though cannibalisation threat is there, it is not very serious opine Firodia and the vehicle dealers.

He said the target for Flyte are owners of TVS Motor''s 90cc scooterette Scooty Pep and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd''s 102cc Activa. "Flyte offers several more innovative features and we would like the riders of Scooty Pep and Activa to go for an upgrade with Flyte."

Adds P. V. Prakash Kumar, managing director of Eswari Motors, one of the leading dealers of Kinetic vehicles in Chennai, "The customer segment for Flyte and the company''s other models are different."

According to him Fylte is targeted at youth in the age band 25-35 the other scooters are for salaried people with a family.

Agreeing that the company is going slow on the motorcycles business Firodia says the motorbikes are sold only in the rural areas.

With an ad budget of Rs26 crore for the current year, the Pune headquartered company is hoping to sell 1.25 lakh units this year. The sales mix would comprise of Flyte 60,000 units, motorcycles 25,000 units, Blaze 12,000 units and the balance from other scooter and scooterette models.

Last year the company sold 55,000 scooters, 25,000 motorcycles and 15,000 mopeds.