INDIA"S FIRST 300CC BIKES
Mumbai: Auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday entered the high-revenue motorcycle segment by launching two models at both ends of the spectrum, a 110-cc entry-level bike and a premium 300 cc offering, which it claimed, is the country's fastest.
Stallio, the 110-cc bike, will be available in two variants and is priced between Rs. 41,199 and Rs. 44,699 (ex-showroom Pune), while the 300-cc Mojo, a "beast" designed by the company's Italian subsidiary Engines Engineering (EE), will be priced Rs. 1.75 lakh.
The launch comes after months of speculation about M&M's two-wheeler plans and the ahead of the festive season, which witnesses maximum sales. The company has spent up to Rs. 50 crore developing the two bikes.
M&M plans to start selling the Stallio by mid-October, while sales for the Mojo, the prototype of which was shown on Thursday, will kick-off by the year end or early next year.
"Without adding any caveats, Mojo is the fastest Indian bike," M&M Group vice-chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra said after showcasing the bike.
The company executives later explained that during tests, the bike, which uses components from the best names of the world, clocked up to 133 km per hour.
The Stallio's engine has been "co-created" by EE, M&M's research division and an unnamed Chinese supplier, M&M's President (two-wheeler sector) Anoop Mathur said.
Over 80 per cent of the bike is 'localised' and that it will 'definitely' give 75-kilometre to a litre of petrol, Mathur maintained.
In a first for the M&M Group, actor Aamir Khan has been roped in as the brand ambassador to promote the Stallio. Stallio will be manufactured in the company's facility in Pithampur (near Indore), where the firm makes its scooterettes currently, Mathur added M&M "will have to" soon ramp-up capacity from the present half-a-million a year.
Senior company executives were, however, tight-lipped about their sales expectations from the two mobikes. Asked how M&M will differentiate the Stallio in the already crowded entry segment, Mahindra said, "the USP of the bike is that it has developed using Mahindra's approach of being customer centric...it will act as the entry point for customers in the Mahindra Universe (of diverse offerings going till SUVs, tractors and finance)."
Explaining the finer features of the Stallio, Mathur said the company has consciously avoided using graphics on the body because the fuel tank is aesthetically designed to look good by itself.
In the higher priced variant, Stallio will have alloy wheels, self start and fully digital console, while the lower variant will have spoke wheels and a kick start, he said.
M&M expects to export the bikes in SAARC, Latin America and Africa by FY12, Mathur said. The company is offering a four-year, 40,000-kilometre manufacturer's warranty for the Stallio and will also be offering eight free services, which is unmatched by any contemporary, Mathur said.
The bikes will be sold through a network of 400 M&M two-wheeler dealers and 250 service centres across India, an executive said, adding, "we have reached the district level currently and will soon go down to the talukas."
Apart from this, group synergies like dealers selling tractors and commercial vehicles will also be used for sales purposes.
M&M entered the two-wheeler segment by acquiring Firodias-promoted Kinetic Motors two years ago and currently sells three models of scooterettes.
Though it has sold 1.5-million scooters in the 12 months, the company was not present in the bikes segment so far which has been witnessing a good growth. It may be noted that the growth in bike sales had resulted in the original king of scooters, Bajaj Auto, fully withdrawing from the segment to concentrate on manufacturing motorcycles.
Aamir Khan launches new M&M bikes - Autos - MSN India
Mumbai: Auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) on Thursday entered the high-revenue motorcycle segment by launching two models at both ends of the spectrum, a 110-cc entry-level bike and a premium 300 cc offering, which it claimed, is the country's fastest.
Stallio, the 110-cc bike, will be available in two variants and is priced between Rs. 41,199 and Rs. 44,699 (ex-showroom Pune), while the 300-cc Mojo, a "beast" designed by the company's Italian subsidiary Engines Engineering (EE), will be priced Rs. 1.75 lakh.
The launch comes after months of speculation about M&M's two-wheeler plans and the ahead of the festive season, which witnesses maximum sales. The company has spent up to Rs. 50 crore developing the two bikes.
M&M plans to start selling the Stallio by mid-October, while sales for the Mojo, the prototype of which was shown on Thursday, will kick-off by the year end or early next year.
"Without adding any caveats, Mojo is the fastest Indian bike," M&M Group vice-chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra said after showcasing the bike.
The company executives later explained that during tests, the bike, which uses components from the best names of the world, clocked up to 133 km per hour.
The Stallio's engine has been "co-created" by EE, M&M's research division and an unnamed Chinese supplier, M&M's President (two-wheeler sector) Anoop Mathur said.
Over 80 per cent of the bike is 'localised' and that it will 'definitely' give 75-kilometre to a litre of petrol, Mathur maintained.
In a first for the M&M Group, actor Aamir Khan has been roped in as the brand ambassador to promote the Stallio. Stallio will be manufactured in the company's facility in Pithampur (near Indore), where the firm makes its scooterettes currently, Mathur added M&M "will have to" soon ramp-up capacity from the present half-a-million a year.
Senior company executives were, however, tight-lipped about their sales expectations from the two mobikes. Asked how M&M will differentiate the Stallio in the already crowded entry segment, Mahindra said, "the USP of the bike is that it has developed using Mahindra's approach of being customer centric...it will act as the entry point for customers in the Mahindra Universe (of diverse offerings going till SUVs, tractors and finance)."
Explaining the finer features of the Stallio, Mathur said the company has consciously avoided using graphics on the body because the fuel tank is aesthetically designed to look good by itself.
In the higher priced variant, Stallio will have alloy wheels, self start and fully digital console, while the lower variant will have spoke wheels and a kick start, he said.
M&M expects to export the bikes in SAARC, Latin America and Africa by FY12, Mathur said. The company is offering a four-year, 40,000-kilometre manufacturer's warranty for the Stallio and will also be offering eight free services, which is unmatched by any contemporary, Mathur said.
The bikes will be sold through a network of 400 M&M two-wheeler dealers and 250 service centres across India, an executive said, adding, "we have reached the district level currently and will soon go down to the talukas."
Apart from this, group synergies like dealers selling tractors and commercial vehicles will also be used for sales purposes.
M&M entered the two-wheeler segment by acquiring Firodias-promoted Kinetic Motors two years ago and currently sells three models of scooterettes.
Though it has sold 1.5-million scooters in the 12 months, the company was not present in the bikes segment so far which has been witnessing a good growth. It may be noted that the growth in bike sales had resulted in the original king of scooters, Bajaj Auto, fully withdrawing from the segment to concentrate on manufacturing motorcycles.
Aamir Khan launches new M&M bikes - Autos - MSN India
