Bajaj Discover vrooms past Splendor;crowns itself as world No1

Mumbai, Oct 3: Bajaj Auto today claimed that its low-end bike Discover has displaced the Splendor from the Hero MotoCorp stable as the largest selling motorcycle in the world in September.The company sold 1,22,968 units of the Discover, launched in 2004, including domestic sales and exports, as against 1,21,018 units of the Splendor, Bajaj Auto president for motorcycle business K Srinivas told reporters here. The key factor that helped the Pune-based Bajaj, which has been trailing Hero for years in sales, achieve the feat is the sharp fall in Splendor's sales over the last few months. Citing monthly data disclosed by the fierce competitors, Srinivas said the Splendor's monthly sales have come off from the May 2012 peak of 2,53,149 units to the current stage, and claimed that the Discover's positioning and strategies can be a reason for the same. He said innovation, better features, competitive pricing and the ability to do more than merely commute, courtesy the focus on power without compromising on the mileage, as the key factors which give the Discover the edge. When pointed out the slim margin over Splendor and asked if the Discover will be able to maintain the leadership position going ahead, he said, “when we launched the Discover in 2004, the brand we wanted to attack was the Splendor.In eight years, we have got very close. Obviously we will start the chase. Whether we will continue this or not is only what the future will tell us.”He said the company is bullish about its newly-launched variant Discover ST, and finding solutions to the capacity constraints and pushing up exports will help bolster sales.Bajaj has set a target of 1,30,000 Discover sales in October and 1,40,000 in November in the domestic market, along with exporting up to 20,000 units in each month, Srinivas said.