Bridgestone is aiming to lead the tyre market in India by entering the two-wheeler segment soon. The company is also introducing new range of tyres for four-wheelers.
In the highly growing two-wheeler and four-wheeler market scenarios in India, competition is rife not only between vehicle manufacturers, but also component and parts manufacturing companies. Let us consider the case of tyres. In the four-wheeler segment, the biggest players are Bridgestone, JK Tyres, Apollo, Yokohoma, Michelin and some more while in the two-wheeler segment, it is CEAT and MRF who are leading the pack.
Japanese company Bridgestone has a lot of expertise when it comes to four-wheeler tyres and the company already has a huge market share in that segment. To expand their foothold in India, Bridgestone is now looking to come up with new products that will serve the ever-growing two-wheeler market. As of now, the company is still in the initial planning phase and it will launch its new offerings in the near future. The company aims to gain a significant amount of market share in the two-wheeler segment too and become a leading tyre company in the country. Bridgestone already makes two-wheeler tyres but in bigger sizes, used by higher capacity bikes. The company is now looking to tap into the mass market segment with tyres for commuter bikes.
In other news, Bridgestone has also launched a new range of tyres for four wheelers. The Ecopia series of tyres have been introduced for small passenger cars like the Maruti Swift, Honda Jazz, etc. and also for the SUV segment which has vehicles like the Mahindra Scorpio and Toyota Fortuner. The new range of tyres are designed in a way that they help increase the vehicle’s fuel efficiency thus helping buyers save on running costs, even though the savings might just be miniscule.
The EP150 series, which is for hatchbacks and small sedans will have 17 tyre sizes. Out of the 17, 3 sizes are ready for launch while the remaining 14 will make their debut next year. The EP150 series will result in a fuel efficiency saving of 7%. The EP850 series is for SUVs and this range will have 9 tyre sizes out of which 6 will be launched in October 2015 itself while the remaining 3 will come next year. This series helps increase mileage by 10%, the company claims.
