Bajaj Auto eyes goods carriers

27 June 2003

Though there had been variants of that, like the four-stroke, compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas fired engines, for the first time the company is entering the commercial vehicles segment in a major way. The company's existing three-wheeled pickup vehicle was small and not suitable to carry moderate loads.

The new vehicle GC 1000 comes with 416.60-cc 8.5-Bhp Japanese Kuboto engine with a payload capacity of 550 kgs. The other features include dual front fork with anti-dive link for better stability, hydraulic brake with tandem master cylinder for efficient braking, electric fuel pump for easy starting, foot-operated single plate-dry clutch.

"All these years we have been losing an opportunity in the goods carrier segment as we didn't have a right product for this segment," says C K Rao, general manager.

With Bajaj Auto's near monopoly in the passenger autorickshaw segment and its focus mainly on retaining its market share in two-wheelers, competition, from Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Tempo, Piaggio and Scooters India, smelled an opportunity and came out with their version of three-wheeler goods and passenger carriers with higher seating/goods carrying capacity to capture a good market share. These vehicles are suitable to carry 500-kg load for a distance of 150 kms.

According to Rao, last year the three-wheeler goods carrier segment averaged a sale of 2,500 vehicles per month. This year it is expected to go up by another 1,000 units.

As a late entrant the company is following an aggressive pricing strategy. "Our vehicle is cheaper by Rs 10, 000 compared to that of our closest competitor," says Rao. Apart from Maharashtra, Bajaj Auto is targeting the southern market where intra-city goods transport is good. While the monthly demand in Maharashtra put at 700 vehicles, the demand in the four southern states is estimated to be around 1,700 units.