Bajaj Platina sales may go up 80% by August

Two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto is expecting over 80 per cent rise in the sale of its newly-launched bike Platina by August.

The company witnessed an average monthly sale of 41,000 bike during April and May. The bike was launched in early April.

"Despite the rains, we expect Platina sales to touch 75,000 by August, which is significant for any new product. It is also a testimony to the trend where the preference of Indian customers is shifting to value-added entry level bikes (100 cc) compared with the regular ones. They are willing to spend that much extra for value addition," said S Sridhar, vice-president, marketing, Bajaj Auto.

Platina is priced at around Rs 35,000 compared with other entry level bikes such as Bajaj CT-100, Hero Honda CD-Dawn or CD-Deluxe, priced under Rs 32,000. The current pricing of Platina is introductory only and may be revised in the near future.

About 50 per cent of the new Platina customers are first-time buyers. 25 per cent of buyers have been Bajaj's past customers, who have upgraded to Platina, while the remaining 25 per cent have been the past customers of competitors such as Hero Honda and TVS Motor, he said.

Platina comes with value additions such as alloy wheel, designs and shades normally seen in high-end bikes.

The entry level (100 cc) bike market in the country is about three lakh units per month.

TVS late last year launched its value-added entry level bike TVS Star City, bearing features such as alloy wheels. However, the performance of this product is not comparable with Bajaj Platina.