November was the best-ever festive season for the 22-year-old pulsar, says Bajaj Auto

In November, Bajaj Auto saw a significant surge in sales, with a 31% increase compared to the same month last year. The total vehicle sales for the Pune-based company reached 4,03,003 units, up from 3,06,719 units in November 2022.

Additionally, the month was the best-ever sales number for 22-year-old pulsar bikes whose first model was launched in 2001.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director of Bajaj Auto, said that in November the company sold half a million Pulsars which is the company's main brand for the 125 CC plus segment. Further, for Bajaj Auto, almost two-thirds of the sales are now coming from the strategic focus that they have on the 125 CC plus segment where Bajaj Auto has grown about 5% of market share compared to the same period last year.

"This 125 CC plus segment now accounts for 50% of the industry and, like I said, 65% of our business. This is a very good indicator of the trends of upgrading in the Indian customer, the confidence and optimism slowly sort of percolating down to the customer, which sort of helps them to make a choice of a better motorcycle, where you then get more degrees of freedom to differentiate through product performance, features, etc. I think these trends will continue.”

In an earlier interview with CNBC-TV18, the company's Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said it was going to pay homage to the Pulsar as it changed the perception of Bajaj from a scooter company to a motorcycle company.

"But in the end, the one brand or product which in 2001 changed Bajaj from a scooter company to a motorcycle company and from a domestic company to a global company as the world's favourite Indian and today the most valuable two and three-wheeler company in the world is Pulsar," Bajaj said.

Talking about the overall sales number in the festive season Bajaj added the two-wheeler industry has grown at 8% this festive season while Bajaj Auto has grown twice at rate.

"It was a very good, festive and as you know, we like to look at the numbers from a retail point of view, which we source from Vahan and the best to look at the numbers over the September October November period because it covers the full spectrum of festive takes into account month ends and it's easier to compare with last year which had the different festive date," he added.

He further mentioned that usually there is an immediate drop after the festive season. But in the last 10-15 days, Bajaj Auto has not noticed that kind of drop, at least in the retail segment.

"So, this augurs well, and therefore we think that going forward, certainly the industry can count on something like 8=9% growth and we will certainly be looking at growing at twice that rate, if not more," added Bajaj.