Bajaj Avenger gets upgrade, variants

MUMBAI: In a bid to boost its market share in the domestic cruiser bike segment, which has seen growing demand in recent years, Bajaj Auto has given its only cruiser motorcycle Avenger an upgrade, by launching three new models on Tuesday.

The Avenger Cruise 220 and Street 220 – powered by a 220-cc engine – will cost `84,000 exshowroom Delhi and the 150cc Avenger Street 150 would set one back by `75,000 exshowroom Delhi.

The Avenger was first introduced in 2005, replacing the earlier Eliminator, and the company says that during 2008-15, its sales grew at an annual rate of 26%.

“We see the cruiser segment worth developing. Bringing in an additional variant such as the Street and by offering a 150cc capacity, we will significantly expand the segment,” said Eric Vas, president – motorcycle business at Bajaj Auto. The company hopes to sell close to 20,000 units per month in due course. It will also scale up the Avenger production capacity to 20,000 units from 5,000 at its Chakan plant near Pune, where Bajaj plans to scale up overall capacity by 50% to 150,000 units per month. In the first half of 2015-16, Bajaj Auto sold 1,778,332 motorcycles, marginally higher than 1,774,011 units in the same period a year ago. Overall the motorcycle market saw sales decline 4% in April-September, with the festive season unlikely to bring much cheer.

“Rural market is deeply distressed. But there is urban distress also in the bottom end of the market,” said Vas.