TVS planning LPG, CNG bikes

The alternative fuel fever has caught up with Chennai-based TVS Motor Company, synonymous with ‘TVS Scooty’. Having entered the electric scooter segment, the company is exploring LPG and CNG two wheelers.

S Srinivas, general manager, marketing, TVS Motor Company, said that the company has been looking at LPG and CNG-run motorcycles, scooters and scooterettes. The company has its R & D centre at Hosur near Bangalore.

However, a time frame for entering the new segments has not been decided yet. The company’s first foray into alternative fuels has begun with ‘Scooty Teenz Electric’ which will make its debut at Ahmedabad.

Rolled out from the company’s Mysore plant, the 800 watt scooter generates an average range of 40 kms per nine hours of charge. This can increase by 50 per cent if the rider opts for lower speeds by using a feature called Range Selector.

Priced at Rs 32,500 (ex-showroom Ahmedabad), the vehicle comes with a load carrying capacity of 130 kgs with a pillion rider. The lead-acid batteries used for the vehicle are tested to last for 1.5 years if the user’s riding average is 25 kms. The company has decided to launch the vehicle at Ahmedabad owing to the high concentration of two wheelers in the city and female riders.

To start with, TVS expects the vehicle to sell around 500 units in Ahmedabad. Following its launch in other western states and other parts of the country by April, the sales are expected to touch 8000 units. The Scooty Teenz petrol has sold 800 units a month in Ahmedabad and is priced at Rs 25,000.

News : TVS shifts tack with single-spark Flame

TVS Motor Company will launch a single-spark 125cc Flame in March even while the legal tug-of-war with Bajaj Auto continues on the twin-spark version. Run-up to Budget 2008-09. The bike will be rolled out across the country and not confined to a single metro. The company had earlier targeted Chennai as the first market for the twin-spark version in December.

Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, TVS Motor, told that the company would also launch the fuel-injected Apache and the three-wheeler in March. The electric scooter, which has already been launched in Gujarat, will be available across the country in 2008-09. However, it is the Flame that TVS Motor is banking on for volumes and to make a significant impact in the executive segment, which is the mainstay of Hero Honda today.

In the process, it hopes that the bike will take up a substantial chunk of its motorcycle portfolio during 2008-09. At present, the company’s entry segment model, Star, accounts for nearly 80 per cent of its bike sales, but the margins are really little to write home about. This is understandable given that it is priced in the region of Rs 35,000. In contrast, the Flame, which will be closer to the Rs 46,000-mark, will clearly be a bigger money spinner.

“We believe that it has the potential to do good numbers, and ideally, take up over 35 per cent of our bike range. This is the only three-valve bike based on patented AVL technology licensed to TVS,” Srinivasan said.

In terms of price and features, it will be part of the segment now occupied by the Super Splendor, Gladiator, Shine etc. The entry-level executive segment, where the Splendor (and the slightly dearer Passion) rules the roost is the one that posts the big numbers. It is here that Bajaj Auto’s 125cc XCD has been slotted with an intention of weaning customers away from 100cc bikes.

Srinivasan said that TVS would launch more products in 2008-09, including two new bikes and a completely restyled Scooty. Two-wheeler sales have been hit by the economic slowdown and tight financing norms. Barring Hero Honda, other players have had a hard time and this could well continue next fiscal till Diwali when a turnaround is expected. As for its Indonesia project for the Neo step-thru, TVS has targeted sales of 60,000 units this calendar. Plans are also under way to expand its presence in the Asean region by setting up assembly units in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines.

- Sify Finance

TVS files plea in HC seeking to set aside single judge order on Flame

TVS Motor Company Limited on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Madras High Court, seeking to set aside a single judge order restraining it from manufacturing, marketing, selling and exporting two or three wheelers with an internal combustion engine, infringing Bajaj Auto's patent.

The appeal is likely to come up for hearing tomorrow. Justice P Jyothimani had on February 16 granted an interim injunction on an application filed by Bajaj Auto Limited, Pune, restraining TVS Chennai from using the technology in any manner and invention described in the patent.

In its appeal, TVS submitted that the single judge failed to consider the specific pleading and evidence adduced by it to show that TVS Flame 125 model was based on adoption of the twin spark plug arrangement patented by Honda in US.

"The functioning of the three valve arrangement was based on the patent granted in favour of AVL in US, licensed to TVS by AVL. The entire IC engine of TVS was distinct from the Bajaj patent and thus does not at all infringe the Bajaj patent specifications and claims of Bajaj," it said.

The judge failed to note that in the absence of Bajaj making out any case of infringement or satisfying the prescribed test, an injunction cannot be granted, TVS contended.

The judge did not apply the correct test of comparing Bajaj's claim as envisaged in its patent specification with the product of TVS, it said.

"The judge failed to note that Bajaj filed the suit without seeing the TVS product and the allegations of infringement were based on guess work. Having come to the conclusion that there are triable issues, the judge ought to have relegated the parties to the trial," TVS said.

- Economic Times