The Delhi government has decided to ban the registration of two-wheelers in the national capital region (NCR) from March, even as the domestic automobile industry has been making a series of efforts to stave off such a move.
"We will do it (ban registration of two-stroke two-wheelers) from March," Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit said yesterday. NCR is the single largest two-wheeler market in the country. Over 60,000 new two-wheelers are added every year to the region's existing population of about two million two-wheelers. Given the current growth rate, the new additions could be close to 100,000 this financial year.
Dikshit, however, added that the decision could be rolled back if the Supreme Court, before which a case on emission norms is currently open, rules that there is nothing wrong with two-stroke technology. The automobile industry has been campaigning against the wide-spread belief that two-stroke technology is more polluting , pointing out that 75 per cent of the two-wheelers manufactured all over the world run on two-stroke technology. According to the industry, two-stroke technology can be as clean as four stroke technology, especially when supplemented with a catalytic converter to take care of the residual hydro-carbons. Society for Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the representative body of the Indian automobile industry, has told the government in a series of interactions at various Fora that the industry should merely be told what emission norms are to be met, leaving the manufacturers to choose the technology.... (....Business Standard)

Two-wheeler major TVS-Suzuki Ltd (TSL) has launched the Suzuki Fiero, the company's 150 cc four-stroke motorcycle. Speaking at the launch, Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, TSL, said Fiero is being positioned as a '100 cc Plus' commuter bike for the urban market.
"With a power of 12bhp and at around 57 km per litre in actual city driving conditions, we will be able to carve out a market," he said. TSL is targeting an all-time high turnover of Rs 2,100 crore for the financial year 2000-01, and a profit before tax of Rs 160 crore. Mr. Srinivasan said the company is expecting to end the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 1,650 crore and a profit of over Rs 120 crore. "We will achieve good growth next year with five new models including variants lined up, and will get closer to eight per cent profit margin," he said. The company expects modest growth in the current year. It has increased its market share to 22.6 per cent in the first nine months from 20.8 per cent in the year-ago period. " There is a plateauing of return on sales, even though sales have been going up," Mr. Srinivasan said. Conceding that there will always be an inter-play between the company's products, he said the launch of the Fiero will not affect sales of the company's existing two-wheelers. TSL hopes to sell around 50,000 Fiero motorcycles in the next financial year in at least 50 urban centres and has set a sales target of 7,000-8,000 bikes by March, 2000. The Fiero is hitting in the market behind schedule. Its original launch schedule June 1999. "We were occupied with the Spectra (the company's four-stroke scooter) and hence the Fiero launch is delayed," Mr. Srinivasan said. He also conceded that Spectra had failed to catch the market's fancy. It has so far sold 5,000 units against the initial target of 12,000 vehicles. "We expected people buying a Rs 25,000 scooter to shift to Spectra, they instead preferred to buy a motorcycle at that price level," Mr. Srinivasan said. But the company's pre-launch studies showed that people would prefer to buy a high-end scooter priced at Rs 35,000. He said Spectra is being re-positioned and re-configured to meet expectations of the buyers.

Two-wheeler maker Kinetic Engineering has decided to price its two new motorcycles in the Rs 40,000-50,000 range, group chairman Arun Firodia said yesterday. This is the first time Kinetic is foraying into the motorcycle segment. A 100cc motorcycle would be rolled out in February while a 125cc motorcycle would be launched later, Firodia said. The group also plans to launch two new types of scooters, he added. Firodia was speaking at a press conference to unveil a slew of variants for its existing range of mopeds and scooterettes.
The Kinetic group chairman said the 125cc motorcycle was developed with South Korean Hyosung's technology while the 100cc Challenger was developed with technological assistance from Thailand. Some of the new variants unveiled by the company yesterday sport a 4-stroke engine while the rest use catalytic converters in order to meet emission norms. The Kinetic group also unveiled an electric scooter which Firodia expects will be launched in a year's time. Earlier, prior to the press conference, Firodia said the company has put on hold an earlier plan to make an electric car priced above Rs 1 lakh due to the lack of a clear policy is needed. The government policy on tax benefits to such products must be known before we can think of introducing them," Firodia said. " The scooter market in India is changing from geared scooters to gearless ones. Since we are pioneers of this sector, we are recording smart growth rates," he said. Firodia said the company, which bought technology for its motorcycles, is still in the lookout for newer technology for scooters and other products.

Italian Two-wheeler major Piaggio is likely to pick up 74 per cent equity in government-owned Scooters India Ltd (SIL). The remaining equity will be divided between the Government of India and SIL. "The proposal has been submitted before the law ministry, which is likely to take a decision soon," an SIL executive said.
Piaggio's resident manager Mario Emprin Gilardini said his company was keen on the tieup. "Scooters India has excellent skilled manpower that could prove useful," he said. Gilardini said he would be meeting the department of Industrial Policy and Promotion secretary Ajit Kumar soon but did not reveal the date, saying he was still waiting for an appointment. Scooter India's chairman and managing director, A Sahay, rushed to see Pradip kumar a joint secretary in the department of Ministry of Heavy Industry soon after unveiling new a version of Vikram EV, a battery operated three-wheeler, at the Auto Expo.

The Bajaj Auto brass has reached an understanding with kawasaki under which the japanese major will pick up 20 per cent equity in the Indian two-wheeler giant's motorcycles division when it is spun off as a separate company. Bajaj Auto is meanwhile increasing its capacity to 3 million vehicles by 2004 under a Rs 1,000 crore investment programme. At the same time, it is extending the bajaj brand to merchandise - starting with Spirit - and working towards a new image for the Bajaj brand.
Kawasaki, which now has a technology licensing agreement with Bajaj Auto, has said it will be happy with 20 per cent equity while leaving it to the Bajaj brass to decide when and whether the motorcycles division should be spun off. "They (kawasaki) have said that they don't want more than 20 per cent... they are not interested in taking equity in Bajaj Auto... they are interested in taking equity in motorcycles division, if we hive it off," Bajaj Auto vice-president (products) Rajiv Bajaj told Business Standard. Once a decision to hive off the motorcycles division was taken, the entire process will take about 6-12 months to be completed, he said.
(...Business Standard.)

Italian two-wheeler major Piaggio will re-enter India through a Rs 200 crore greenfield project which will manufacture scooters and mopeds.
Piaggio's decision to set up a 100 per cent subsidiary, which had recently pulled out from its Indian venture LML, comes as a surprise as the Italian firm was at an advanced stage of talks with the state-owned Scooters India for a joint venture.
Piaggio, which has approached the centre in the last week of December for the necessary approval for its subsidiary plan, has also submitted a no-objection certificate from LML in support for its proposed local subsidiary.
The company has also proposed to pump in additional investments in phases into the Indian subsidiary over a period of time. Piaggio, however, has not disclosed neither the specific two-wheeler models it plans to launch in the domestic market nor the location of the project