TVS forays into three-wheeler segment; rolls out 7 vehicles

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.