Bajaj Auto has turned back focus on its flagship motorcycle brand, the Pulsar and plans to launch more models from the popular series. This financial year is the year of the Pulsars.
Bajaj Auto will launch the much awaited 400cc Pulsars early next year, that is between January and March 2016. The company’s MD, Rajiv Bajaj has confirmed that the higher capacity Pulsars will be launched this fiscal year. The Pulsar RS 400 will be a full faired model which will also become the fastest Pulsar while the Pulsar CS 400 will become the flagship Bajaj product on sale in the country. While RS stands for Race Sport, CS stands for Cruiser Sport and both these models were displayed at the 2014 Auto Expo. The RS 400 was christened as the 400 SS (Super Sport).
While the company hasn’t divulged the exact specifications of either of these bikes, both will share their powertrain with the KTM 390s which draw power from a 373.2cc single-cylinder engine. There will be slight hardware differences to keep costs lower than the Austrian machines. We expect the Bajaj version of this high performance motor to output around 40 HP and 32 Nm, with the ‘Definitely Male’ machines being slightly slower than their KTM counterparts. The Pulsar RS 400 is expected to be priced under Rs. 2 lakhs while the Pulsar CS 400 should cost around Rs. 2.15 lakhs (on-road), both motorcycles will get standard dual-channel ABS.
The company wants to expand its export base by entering 25 new markets this fiscal year while it already sends its 2 and 3-wheelers to 40 countries. Bajaj launched the 150 AS and 200 AS yesterday and plans to sell 10,000 units and 5000 units of these bikes every month respectively. Meanwhile, the sales target for the full faired Pulsar, the RS 200 is 2500 units every month. Bajaj Auto’s next launch is the Pulsar 150 NS while a NS version of the 400cc Pulsar is also expected later next year. The company could simply launch the 400 AS instead of the 400 NS.
