Bajaj Auto will launch the Pulsar 250F in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the original Pulsar
Baja Auto is set to launch the Pulsar 250F in November this year, on the 20th anniversary of the original Pulsar.
Managing Director of Bajaj Auto, Rajiv Bajaj, has recently revealed that in November this year, Bajaj will launch the all-new Pulsar platform and will start with the biggest Pulsar it has ever made.
“…that platform will, over the next 12 months work its way down all the way to the smallest Pulsars that we make. So, that is our biggest product move in the near future,” Bajaj revealed.
The head of Bajaj Auto also said it aims to electrify its current brands, while doing full justice to its current 2- and 3-wheeler business and defend its success.
It is well-known that Bajaj Auto is in the process of forming a wholly owned electric vehicle (EV) subsidiary and the managing director of the the firm has revealed why it made the decision to launch a separate EV brand.
Despite being one of the early entrants into the electric scooter market, Bajaj Auto, Rajiv Bajaj says, might not have the “most appropriate top management to lead this company forward into the electric space.”
In July, the board of directors of the automaker had approved incorporation of a new wholly owned sub-brand with a proposed authorised capital of Rs. 100 crores.
A statement from the company said the new EV subsidiary will help Bajaj Auto venture into the manufacturing of electric and hybrid 2-, 3- and 4-wheelers.
Rajiv Bajaj said the new EV sub-brand was is being formed due to lessons learnt from the past. He said although the firm was the most successful maker of scooters between the 60s and 80s, it lost out in the motorcycle market in the 90s.
Then, with the launch of the first-generation Pulsar in 2001, Bajaj Auto 2.0 was born and from then on the firm essentially became a motorcycle company, said Rajiv Bajaj.
In effect, the firm is forming a new sub-brand for EVs to not be caught napping like in the 90s once again. Bajaj believes it is not just the technology that may change in the future, but everything around it, be it design, pricing and even the business model.
This is why Rajiv Bajaj believes the firm’s existing talent, even in the top management, including him, “may not be best placed to make the most of this opportunity.” He also added that there might be a need for a different kind of talent across functions in the transition to electrification.
He said the existing company is not short on talent, but rather, it is in a situation where its own success becomes a hurdle in striking the right partnerships.
Which is why Bajaj had to create a new entity “which gives us the flexibility to bring in the talent we need to…strike the partnerships we need…So that we are not left behind in this transition,” he noted.