TVS sales decline 20% in February

Firm attributes drop in sales to the non-availability of 125 cc Flame motorcycle.

TVS Motor Co. today said it sold 95,235 two-wheelers in February, down nearly 21 per cent from a year ago.

Motorcycle sales in February declined 33.6 per cent from a year ago to 46,565 units, the company said. TVS Motor had sold 70,155 motorcycles a year ago.

The company attributed the non-availability of the recently launched 125 cc Flame motorcycle to the falling sales.

"This has made the company practically absent in the executive segment, which forms approximately 50 per cent of the market," the company said in a release.

Initially, shares of TVS Motor, which were trading at Rs 43.50 at 10:06 am, remained almost flat in a falling market.

However, they eventually picked on the company's plans to foray into the three-wheeler segment and proposed launch of two new motorcycles this month. At 10:53 am, shares of TVS Motor were up nearly 3.42 per cent at Rs 45.45.

TVS Motor plans sell the 125 cc Flame motorcycle fitted with a new engine from this month. TVS Motor, country's third-largest two-wheeler maker, was restrained from making its 125 cc Flame based on the controlled combustion variable timing intelligent engine technology after Bajaj Auto filed a patent infringement case against it.

Pune-based Bajaj Auto had filed a case against TVS Motors last September alleging infringement of its patented digital twin spark ignition engine technology.

The company has said there is no injunction against selling the 'Flame' motorcycle and that the injunction is only against the use of the engine with twin-spark plugs.

The company also plans to launch a new Apache RTR Efi motorcycle and a range of three-wheelers this month.

The company is also working on new technologies involving alternate fuels and alternate energy and is expected to bring out products using these during the next financial year starting April.

In the scooter segment, TVS reported sales of 14,126 units of Scooty in February compared with 19,937 units in the corresponding period the previous year.

"Restricted availability of retail finance and high interest rates combined with stringent norms followed by financiers continued to affect the sale of two wheelers," TVS said.

On the export front, the company sold 12,523 two-wheelers in February, as against 8,017 a year ago.