DSK Motowheels, part of the Pune-based DS Kulkarni Group, which assembles and sells the Hyosung superbikes in India and is in the process of acquiring land for its upcoming plant near Pune plans to make 125 cc and 150 cc bikes here. This apart, the company is also mulling to enter the high-growth scooters segment in the long run.
Chief operating officer of DSK Motowheels, Shivapada Ray, said that the company has definite plans to make 125 cc and 150 cc bikes at the upcoming plant that will give them access to the volume segment in the motorcycles space. "We are in the process of acquiring land for our plant, we already have around 85 acres in possession of the total 100 acre parcel. We plan to start production at this new facility by 2016, and once it comes onstream, we plan to get into manufacturing 125cc and 150cc bikes in India," he explained.
The company which sells the Hyosung bikes in India under the brand DSK Hyosung, has bikes in the 250cc to 650 cc range. Currently, the company assembles the Hyosung superbikes from the stable of Korea's S&T Motors at a small assembly unit at Wai in Maharashtra that can assemble 12 bikes per shift per day. DSK had acquired the motorbikes business of another Pune based company Garware Motors in June this year and the Wai assembly unit came as a part of that.
DSK's new plant coming up at Karad near Pune for an investment of around Rs 400 crore will make 100,000 per annum in single shift. It will also house a small R&D centre, and Ray pointed out that the centre would play a crucial role in customising the new bikes as well as the scooters.
"As for the bikes, we are planning to target the aspirational segment, and not the commuter segment. These would be stylised 150 cc bikes," he added. Scooters are a longterm plan, as the segment shows significant potential. "Scooters are growing at around 30 per cent, and 125-150 cc segment is growing at around 12-13 per cent. Motorcycle market base is much larger, however," Ray said.
Meanwhile, the company is also working on increasing the localisation of its bikes, which is currently at around 10-15 per cent. "We plan to take it up to 60 per cent in the 250 cc superbikes," Ray said. The company has already managed to bring down costs by focussing on localisation. As a result, the prices of the bikes too have come down from a range of Rs 2.79 - 5.8 lakh in 2012, to around Rs 2.63-5.75 lakh now.
Having sold around 1,850 bikes (mostly 250 cc) last year, the company plans to launch another new 250 cc bike this year, the GD250, which Ray claimed would be the first single cylinder bike in the country in the category.
