“We will leverage our brand recall, retail network and our presence in automotive industry to enhance our two-wheeler product portfolio.”

Chennai, Feb. 28 Tube Investments of India Ltd, part of the Rs 9,582-crore Murugappa Group, will firm up its two-wheeler plans by this year-end. Last November, the company created a business unit, BSA Motors and launched five electric scooters.

Mr Arun Alagappan, Senior Vice-President of the company told Business Line that the company is currently working on a project to expand its two-wheeler product portfolio. It is in talks with few companies for possible co-operation as the company is working on a combination of technologies.

Recall for BSA brand is promising with its range of bicycles and the electric scooters. Besides, the group has manufacturing operations that make sheet metal, fine blank and tube parts that are widely used in two-wheelers.

Brand recall
About 85 per cent of the motorcycles manufactured in the country use tubular parts, manufactured by its group company, for telescopic suspension and over 50 per cent of bikes use TI Diamond chains.

“We will leverage our brand recall, retail network and our presence in automotive industry to enhance our two-wheeler product portfolio,” he said. The company will launch two more electric bikes in June.

Dealership expansion
Currently, the company has five models – Smile, Diva, Street Rider, Roamer and Roamer Plus. Mr K.B. Srinivasan, Vice-President, BSA Motors, said about 90 per cent of the content of these bikes is imported from China and Taiwan. Gradually, the local content will be increased.

The company has 25 dealers now and will increase to 45 before this fiscal-end covering Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Puducherry and Goa.

It will close this year by selling about 4,000 bikes and next year it hopes to sell 25,000 units.