Bajaj's 2-wheeler sales up 31% in Feb

Bajaj Auto clocked a 31% growth in the two-wheeler segment in February 2005, but witnessed a 7.8% sales dip in the three-wheeler segment.

The company's two-wheeler sales stood at 1,39,573 units in February 2005 as against 1,06,558 units during the same month last year, while the motorcycle sales for the month shot up by 53.7% to 1,29,409 units as against 84,170 units in the year-ago period.

The three-wheeler segment took a hit with sales figures dropping by 7.8%. The company sold 18,556 units in this segment as against 20,120 units last February.

The company expects its two-wheeler sales to touch 1.5 million figure this fiscal and has plans to expand its capacity to two lakh units per month from this year, the company said in a release.

"We expect to introduce new models in key market positions during April-September 2005 to further accelerate on motorcycle growth," vice president (marketing) R L Ravichandran said.

The combined two and three-wheeler market saw a growth of 24.8% with 1,58,129 units being sold last month as against 1,26,678 units in the corresponding month last year.

Bajaj's total exports grew by 38.8% with 19,204 units as against 13,831 units in the year-ago period.

Bajaj's total market share has increased from 23.1% to 29.3%, the company claimed.