Chennai based TVS Motor Company is trying every new strategy to gain its lost grounds. After losing its grip over Industry’s top three positions, the company is all set to come up with a slew of new products and hopes to come back in form. The competition would be tough as TVS will have to out beat the industry leaders Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India and Bajaj Auto. The company plans to invest Rs. 300-400 crores on producing new models and to improvise the existing ones.
Work is in progress and TVS is focusing on automatic transmission technology and hybrid technology. The beta versions for trials of the same will be released in September. R&D team is also working on producing their concept hybrid scooter called Qube. This scooter is likely to be priced at a higher margin as compared to existing automatic scooter range and would cost anywhere between Rs. 55,000/- to 60,000/-.
“Currently we produce only up to 180 cc and below; we will be entering the bigger bikes segment. There is a trend of moving towards bigger bikes; while the numbers are small, the growth is quite high.” Vinay Harne, President NPI, TVS Motor Company, said.
In its line of action, TVS will roll out six new products. These would include bikes in 200-250cc category too. We can expect them in the market by 2014-15. The company has however not revealed the engine configurations. They have also taken into consideration, the carbon emissions, and thus the bigger performance-oriented engines will meet Euro V emission norms. This would attract the international customer base. The smaller engines would deliver 20 percent less carbon emissions.
The company has worked on cost reduction by going for cost effective material, reducing weight and using a low cost manufacturing process. One can not rule out the localisation of their production units. While the new products would take almost 18 months to hit the market, currently TVS Motor Company has lined up two new motorcycles and a scooter to prevent further drop in market share. Will the company gain its lost ground? Let’s see.
