Having launched its three wheeler passenger vehicle in Gujarat, TVS Motor Company is now eyeing a market share of around 30 per cent by financial year end 2009. The company hopes to offer some competition to incumbent leader Bajaj with its TVS King ZX in the 24,000 three wheeler vehicles market of Gujarat.
“Gujarat is a major market for our company in any segment including three wheelers. We hope to capture atleast 30 per cent of the 2,000 vehicles market in Gujarat by the fiscal end,” said K Srinivas, vice president, sales and marketing for three wheelers, TVS Motors Company.
Launched in the CNG version, the 200 cc two stroke autorikshaw is available in two variants, namely ‘electric start’ and ‘hand start’. The company has added attractive features to the vehicle including a car-like dashboard with fuel level indicators and mobile phone charging socket, dual tone high quality seats, and an integrated bumper.
While the product is available initially in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Vapi and Rajkot, the company will expand its footprint to other markets of Gujarat in near future. TVS Motor Company has also tied up with leading non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) like Sriram Transport Finance for providing financial assistance to its customers.
The company has invested over Rs 120 crore in a state-of-art manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu with an installed capacity of 1 lakh vehicles per annum. “In the last six months since the national roll out of three wheeler vehicles, we have manufactured and sold around 2,000 autorickshaws. We hope to reach full capacity utilisation within next three years,” added Srinivas.
For better sales, TVS Company is targeting the replacement market among three wheeler vehicles. “We believe we can consolidate our sales by targeting the replacement market. There are around 18 lakh old passenger three wheelers plying across the country. While the current replacement rate is 2.5 per cent, it is expected to double up to 5 per cent within a year,” he said.