TVS Motor Company will launch four new two wheeler models -- motorcycles and scooters -- by the end of 2013 to fill the gaps in its product line, a top company official said Friday.
"We will be launching a new Victor model in nine months time the production which would start next June and a new scooter will also be there apart from other models," Venu Srinivasan, chairman, told reporters here.
Launching the new 125cc Phoenix, he said the premium motorcycle priced at around Rs.53,000 will fill the gap in the company's product line-up and in six months time the model would rake up sales of around 20,000 units per month.
Srinivasan said Phoenix sporting car-like features (full digital speedometer, backlit in premium amber, digital fuel guage, low battery reminder, trip meter, service reminder and others) was developed at an outlay of Rs.50 crore.
He declined to specify the investment made in developing the other four new models to be launched by 2013.
Srinivasan said the company was dragged down due to the failure of motorcycles like Centra, Flame and Jive.
But then, he said, companies in the auto industry have the history of touching peaks and going down and later coming up again.
"For nearly five years the company did not have a product in the premium executive segment that was logging good sales volumes," H.S. Goindi, president, marketing, said.
Goindi said the deluxe executive motorcycles segment is growing at seven percent per annum while TVS Motor had products at the lower end (Star City, Sport, Jive) and at the higher end (Apache 160cc and Apache 180 cc) Phoenix would fill the gap.
Asked about the status of new compact engine developed by TVS for motorcycles and scooters, Srinivasan said the new engine will take sometime to be fitted into the new models.
He said the company would save on component costs as there would be high level of common components in the new engine.
TVS Motor is looking at launching a scooter with the new engine first and other models later.
Chief executive K.N. Radhakrishnan said the company's three wheelers are now gaining market share and the talk of the vehicle not having good resale value is baseless.
On the moped sales, Goindi said TVS Motor logs around 60,000 units per month and the company is now selling good numbers in North India.
"We will be launching new models in the mopeds segment as well," Goindi said.
Queried about the company's reported talks with BMW for rolling out high powered bikes, Srinivasan said he would share details at an appropriate time.