No plans to enter commuter two-wheeler segment: Suzuki Motorcycle

We are concentrating on 125 cc scooter market and in motorcycle segment over 150 cc segment only, so we don't have any plan to bring a commuter scooter or 100 cc motorcycle, said MD Koichiro Hirao

New Delhi: Suzuki Motorcycle India on Wednesday said it currently has no plans to enter two-wheeler commuter segment in the country. The company, which on Wednesday introduced its Access 125 and Burgman Street scooters with bluetooth-enabled digital console priced at Rs 78,600 and Rs 84,600, respectively (ex-showroom Delhi), would continue to focus on 125 cc scooter and above 150 cc bike segments in the country.

“As a policy, we are concentrating on 125 cc scooter market and in motorcycle segment over 150 cc segment only, so we don’t have any plan to bring a commuter scooter or 100 cc motorcycle. We don’t have any plan right now,” Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd (SMIPL) Managing Director Koichiro Hirao told reporters. Commuter segment bikes and scooters usually come with smaller capacity engines with focus on fuel efficiency rather than out-and-out performance.

Suzuki Motorcycle currently sells bikes in above 150 cc category and two 125 cc scooter models in the country. SMIPL Vice-President (sales, marketing and aftersales) Devashish Handa said the company is looking to expand its sales network by just around 1 per cent this fiscal. “It is very much by choice. After having improved our pecking order in the domestic two-wheeler industry from number seven in 2018-19 to number five now, we have realised that in order to secure our aspirations we need to start focusing on quality as much as we have focused on quantity,” Handa noted.

The company expanded its sales network by 8 per cent in 2018-19, which was reduced to just 2 per cent in 2019-20. The company’s entire network initiative this year would be on ensuring that its secondary network policy, which was initiated last year, gets completed on ground, he added. The company currently has over 530 dealerships across the country.

SMIPL, however, aims to expand its pre-owned business vertical across the country, Handa said. “In phase one we were present in one location, in second phase we added five more locations and now in third phase we plan to further scale it up and consolidate this initiative. We have now understood nuts and bolts of pre-owned vehicle business,” he added.

Commenting on the upcoming festive season, Handa said the company remains optimistic about sales performance during the period stretching from middle of this month to November-end.

“We have witnessed improvement in sales over the last few months. In September, we even performed better than same month last year. In line with this, we are optimistic about festive season as well,” Handa said. Commenting on the new launches, Hirao said bluetooth console on both the models can be paired with smartphone thus, enabling turn by turn navigation and other features like call and SMS alert display, WhatsApp alert, estimated time of arrival alerts, missed call alert and caller id, over-speed warning and phone battery level display.

“The technology has been developed keeping the requirements of today’s young customer in mind who always wants to stay connected, but doesn’t want to compromise on his/her safety by using a phone while riding a two-wheeler,” he added.