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Informist, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026

By Anand JC and P. Madhu Kumar

MUMBAI – Bajaj Auto Ltd. Friday said it feels the need to have a brand in the segment housing motorcycles with an engine capacity of 125 cubic centimetres, especially in the next two years, as the company looks to corner more market share in this space. "We also see us, either through a new brand or within the same umbrella brand, getting into some new formats like on-off or off-roading type of bikes," Executive Director Rakesh Sharma told analysts in a post-earnings conference call.

In the call with analysts after the September quarter earnings, the company had said it was planning to launch a new motorcycle brand to broaden its internal combustion engine-fuelled base and complement the existing suite of Pulsar options. Sharma said Bajaj Auto has a "pretty rich" pipeline of products, some potentially under new brands. "And it could also be some of our existing dormant brands which we will just dust off and reintroduce," Sharma said.

The motorcycle industry has seen robust growth in recent months, especially after the cut in goods and services tax. "We expect this growth momentum in the industry to continue, and the motorcycle industry to continue to grow at, say, 12-15%," Sharma said.

Earlier in the day, another company executive had offered a more moderate view on the industry's growth prospects. "The industry is currently trending at single digit (levels)... and as we look at the following quarters, the current levels hopefully should sustain to some extent, essentially mid-to-high single digit," Bajaj Auto Chief Financial Officer Dinesh Thapar had told reporters.

Bajaj Auto said the growth momentum seen during the festival season is being sustained currently. "Based on the way December and January are unfolding... it seems that the industry momentum, the motorcycle industry growth momentum, is (being) sustained and, in fact, does better than what we were thinking it would do," Sharma said.

According to Sharma, the quality of the growth in the motorcycle industry has also been good, "...with the 125cc-plus segment growing at a faster rate, and within that, the 150cc-plus segment growing even faster". He said, "This phenomenon is creating a very positive and supportive environment for our portfolio, which rests on the proposition of persuading the customer to upgrade to bigger and more differentiated bikes."

The company's market share in the 150cc-and-above segment was "challenged" since the March quarter of the financial year 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), which continued well into the June quarter of FY26. "The genesis of the weakness, I think, lay in the asymmetry of our new product and upgrade cycle compared to that of key competitors," Sharma said. "Two developments have reversed the trend for us and started to point the trajectory in this very important segment upwards."

A positive development has been the fact that consumers are now more optimistic about this segment, compared to the previous caution. Secondly, the company has made a slew of launches since November. "Seven interventions between November and now, in the form of upgrades and refreshes, have been made in the last two months, driving growth and share supported by a positive environment," Sharma said.

The company has introduced seven products in the segment since Diwali and is set to introduce eight more over the next 6-7 months. "We have prioritised the entire R&D and innovation effort in our heartland, which is a 150cc-plus segment, which we are credited with creating, and we want to make sure we are underneath the leaders there," Sharma said. With these plans in place, Bajaj Auto expects to outpace the growth in the 125cc-and-above segment, but more specifically in the 150cc-plus segment.

Bajaj Auto also has sizeable presence in the three-wheeler market with a share of over 70% in fossil fuel-run three-wheelers and over 85% in compressed natural gas-run variants. "We now present the widest e-auto and e-cargo portfolio spanning different vehicle sizes and battery capacities ranging from 9 kilowatt-hours to 18 kilowatt-hours, which is the biggest battery in the business," Sharma said. "This allows us to address a wide spectrum of use cases."

Electric two- and three-wheelers currently contribute 25% to the company's domestic revenue. "The electric segment continues to drive the three-wheeler industry by growing at about 50% plus," Sharma said. Bajaj Auto expects these growth rates to be sustained in the immediate future as its users, who use these vehicles for commercial operations, are seeing a healthy improvement in their earnings.

The rupee weakening against the dollar helped the company's profitability in the December quarter. It also saw some cost pressures building up across metals. "Noble metals, especially platinum, palladium, and rhodium, all saw sharp (price) increases, whilst aluminum, copper, nickel, and lead also continued to harden," Thapar said. He added that this was offset by softer steel prices.

For the December quarter, Bajaj Auto reported a net profit of INR 25.03 billion on a revenue of INR 152.20 billion. The company disclosed its quarterly earnings after the stock market closed Friday. Its shares closed 0.9% higher on the National Stock Exchange at INR 9,597.50.  End

Edited by Rajeev Pai

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