Pulsar, now 10 helped bajaj ride to big league

36 months and Rs100 crore. That’s what took Bajaj Auto to develop the Pulsar.
And the seeds of a game-changer were sown for what was then India’s largest scooter maker.

Ten years ago, on November 23, 2001 to be precise, Bajaj launched Pulsar, marking its foray into the sports premium bike segment.

It was an enormous leap of faith for the company which was then betting on a segment that virtually had no volumes to
speak of.

Many people including the company’s own research firm had dissuaded Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, Bajaj Auto, from entering the segment as it was not expected to ring in volumes. Ten years ago, 150cc and above bikes were only 5% of the market with very few players offering them.

Also, for the first time, Bajaj was marketing a bike under the Bajaj brand. Before that all its motorcycles were co-branded with Kawasaki of Japan, with which it had a technical collaboration.

The bike was developed in-house by Bajaj Research & Development.

The stakes were also high because Bajaj Auto was in the process of shedding its image as a scooter maker and was making efforts to become a large player in motorcycles.

And the gamble paid off handsomely.

Pulsar went on to change the dynamics of the Indian motorcycle segment, which was then dominated by 100cc bikes, with Hero Honda firmly in the lead.

The bike firmly entrenched Bajaj as India’s second-largest motorcycle maker, with a dominant 45% share in the 150cc and above segment.

When Pulsar was launched, it was pitted against Hero Honda’s (now Hero MotoCorp) CBZ, which was at least Rs10,000 expensive than the Pulsar.

“Pulsar was a killer product for Bajaj Auto. There was a huge gap between the 100cc and the higher-end bikes. Pulsar filled the gap and killed all the products around it over the years,” said V G Ramakrishnan, director at Frost & Sullivan.

However Bajaj’s other bikes including Caliber, Caliber, Croma and Aspire did not really make a mark owing to the strong domination of Hero Honda.

“The brand Pulsar became synonymous for the high-powered sports bikes. It became an aspirational product for the youth. Whether it was styling or pricing, it was an attractive package that connected with the youth,” said Ramakrishnan.

In 2001-2002 the company sold on an average 1,000 units of Pulsar a month. Today it sells around 61,000.
“Pulsar is one product that worked well for the company. It showed company’s aggressiveness and at the same time garnered profits for Bajaj. Pulsar’s profitability was at least 6-8 times higher than the regular 100cc products available in the market,” said Mahantesh Sabarad, senior vice-president, equity research, Fortune Equities.

Bajaj Auto started with introducing two engine capacities for the Pulsar brand, which included 180cc and 150cc models. The company currently has four variants with engine capacities of 135cc, 150cc, 180cc and 220cc.

“Over the years we have introduced five upgrades. The only challenge for us was how do we beat the previous Pulsar model,” said R Chandrasekar, general manager, marketing and sales for Bajaj Auto.

The company is in the process of introducing a brand new Pulsar, which is expected to be launched in the Auto Expo in January.

“The new Pulsar will be 100% brand-new and will come with technology better than the current DTS-i. The new technology is the next level for motorcycles, not just the next level for Bajaj,” Rajiv Bajaj had said during the second-quarter results.