As a major producer of various types of vehicles for its domestic market in India, as well as for export to other countries, Bajaj Auto has its interests in many areas. One always interesting aspect of the company is not just the vehicles it produces; it’s that its managing director, Rajiv Bajaj, tends to be extremely honest in interviews about his plans for the immediate future.
In fact, he regularly appears to talk to CNBC-TV18, where he rarely fails to reveal information about what Bajaj plans to do in the coming months. Only his most recent appearance on the channel prompted talk of Bajaj’s plans for its first compressed natural gas (CNG) two-wheeler.
For anyone else, that kind of news would be more than enough to break into the international motorcycle community. For Bajaj, however, it clearly isn’t. Shortly after releasing the news about the CNG bike, the managing director spoke about how the Triumph project is going.
So far, he says, they are successfully producing 20,000 of the existing Triumph 400s (that’s the Speed 400 and the Scrambler 400 X, if you’re keeping track at home) per quarter. With a little extra effort, he estimates that the factory could realistically increase production to 30,000 units per quarter to keep up with the strong demand for these Triumphs.
When is the factory expected to expand to accommodate the increase in production? Theoretically, by July 2024, if everything goes according to plan. Of course, there are still a few months to go, and even the best-intentioned plans can sometimes go awry. So we’ll see what happens and when.
But if all goes well, the CEO says Bajaj should be in a position to produce 10,000 Triumphs a month by September, just in time for the festive season in India. These bikes will be manufactured for both the domestic and international markets. But is there another one coming?