Hosur: TVS Motor Company has launched seven vehicles. Marking its foray into the three-wheeler segment, the new launches include three variants of its new three-wheeler.

The products are expected to be available across the Indian market in a phased manner between October and November this year. Prices will be announced prior to the launch.

The launch function was branded Dhoom 7, and was held in its Rs125-crore new three-wheeler plant at Hosur. Company chairman and managing director Venu Srinivasan announced that the fourth quarter of this fiscal would see a changed TVS with many more aggressive and focused products, and will be marked by a change in the company''s fortunes.

Rising marketing and input costs had impacted the company''s bottom-line last fiscal. The company estimates the automobile industry''s continued growth at 12 per cent per annum, given the economy''s growth at about 9 per cent. Srinivasan said that the company has been spending about 3 per cent of sales on R&D efforts, and results would be evident in the new vehicles that would sport new technology features developed in-house.

The company''s three variants of its new three-wheeler include petrol, CNG and LPG versions, sporting two-stroke engines that comply with the emission and noise norms. TVS is working on a four-stroke engine platform, to be launched in about a year. 90 per cent of the market for passenger three-wheelers is polarised in four southern states plus Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Delhi.

TVS also rolled out a new 125cc bike christened ''Flame'', which is a variant of the StaR City. It also launched an electric variant of Scooty Teenz and the Apache RTR 160 FI in the performance bikes category with electronic fuel injection.

The Flame and the new Apache EFI 160 will serve as technology showcases for TVS. The Flame reportedly sports the country''s first three-valve CC VTi (controlled combustion variable timing intelligent) engine, developed in collaboration with AVL of Austria. TVS expects to manufacture about 35,000 units a year.

For the new variant, the Apache RTR 160 has been upgraded to include electronic fuel injection. The EFI technology has enabled TVS to boost peak power of this recently launched bike. The company did not disclose the price differential between the existing and new version, but market sources estimate the differential to be around Rs5,000.

The Scooty Teenz electric vehicle has been built on the same platform as its earlier two-stroke version. The EV sports an imported electric motor, and is expected to be capable of a top speed of 40 kph, with a maximum range of 50 km on a single charge.