New bike from Bajaj in four months time
Bajaj India is going to launch a new bike in next four months. The new bike would be Bajaj's attempt to put some speed breakers in the path of the Splendor and Passion motorcycles from Hero Honda, which rule the roost.
Bajaj has a meager 9% market share in the 100cc segment while its rival Hero Honda has 80%. It had launched the Discover 100cc motorcycle last month to give it some hope of moving ahead and not losing more to HH. The 100cc segment contributes to one-third of the total motorcycle market in India.
Hero Honda's 100cc models are CD Dawn, CD Deluxe, Splendour, and Passion while Bajaj has just the Discover and Platina. Naturally, progress will happen only if Bajaj fattens its line-up. With the new launches, Bajaj hopes to inch towards its previous overall 2-wheeler market share of 36%, which now has slipped to 21%.
[Via: IAB)
Apache RTR 180 Launched
TVS Motors has come up with a more powerful variant of TVS Apache. The bike retains the basic lines of the current RTR & comes with all the high tech features: digital speedometer with top speed, 0-60 timer, trips, and other extra functionality plus stunning looks.
The Apache RTR 180. It is powered by a 177.4cc engine which generates 17 Bhp of maximum power with 15.5 Nm of maximum torque.
The new 177.4cc mill is a bored out variation of the 160cc mill, and has a longer stroke too. The new engine still remains an oversquare unit, but not so much so as the 160.
Power is up by 1.3 Bhp to 17 Bhp and the new engine produces 2.4 more units of twisting force at 15.5Nm. The peak power is produced at 8500 rpm, similar to RTR 160, though the peak torque is now produced at 6500 revs.
TVS has priced the new Apache RTR 180 competitively at Rs 63,900 in Delhi showroom and Rs 64,900 (ex-showroom, rest of India). It is available in 4 shades - Yellow, Black, Gray & Pearl White.
LML launches four-stroke scooter variant
Though this may come as a big surprise to some, scooters with two-stroke engines are actually still on sale in India! Due to increasingly strict emissions norms, two-stroke engines died a gradual death more than a decade ago.
However, Kanpur-based LML (which had a tie-up with Vespa till 1999) is still making a few scooters that are fitted with two-stroke engines. Also, while the scooter market has shifted to CVT-type transmission, LML scooters still have manual-shift gearboxes.
While it continues to produce 125cc and 150cc two-stroke scooters, LML has now launched a new scooter with a 150cc four-stroke engine. There is no information available on where this new engine has been sourced from, but the scooter has been launched in Delhi and Ghaziabad, where it's priced at Rs 40,000.
LML ran into major financial trouble in 2005 and had to stop production for almost two years. The company started operating again in 2007, when it re-started production of geared two-stroke scooters at its Kanpur facility.
Operating under the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR), LML manages to sell around 1,500 units in and around Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. With its new four-stroke scooter, the company plans to tap the scooters market in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam.
LML has also found an unlikely outlet for its two-stroke scooters, which have found a lot of fans in Europe. The company exports up to 5,000 units per month to Italy, UK and France, where these scooters are sold under the LML Star Deluxe brand. LML scooters are also sold in Nigeria, Sudan, Japan, Australia, South Korea and Egypt, under the Stella brand.
[Via: indiaautomotive]
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