Mahindra Two Wheelers, established in 2008 following Mahindra and Mahindra acquiring select assets of Kinetic Engineering has called it quits from the mass market 2 wheeler segment in the country. The company has its production unit in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh and an R&D Center at Chinchwad in Pune besides a total of 1,842 dealerships across 921 cities in India.
Mahindra Two Wheelers currently offers 6 bikes which comprise 2 commuter bikes, 1 niche bike and two scooters. Scooters are Gusto, Rodeo and Duro while motorcycle range on offer is Centuro and Mojo.
The company’s first two models in the scooter segment – Rodeo and Duro were launched in 2009 and in 2011, Mahindra Two Wheelers was the first Indian company to take part in FIM Moto3, Motorcycle Racing Championship (from which they have announced their exit by end of this year.). The Centuro was launched in 2013 and the Mojo came in 2015.
Despite these innovative offering, the company which merged into M&M last year has had to face falling profits and has hence called it quits from the mass market 2 wheeler segment. Holding the smallest market share in this space as per data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Mahindra Two Wheelers, with a market share of 0.09%, saw sales dip 77% during April to July 2017 to just 6,065 units as compared to sales in the same period of the previous year. The company has not been able to find a foot hold in the India two wheeler space which last year clocked sales to the tune of 17.58 million units and growth of 7%.
Instead of competing in the mass two wheeler segment, Mahindra aims to focus on the niche segment, in which they currently offer Mojo. They have also purchased brands like BSA and Jawa, which will soon be launched in India. Recently, they launched the Yezdi website too.
