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 is 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 speak with CNBC-TV18, where he rarely fails to reveal information about what Bajaj plans to do in the coming months. Just his latest appearance on the channel sparked talk of Bajaj’s plans for its first compressed natural gas (CNG) two-wheeler model.
For anyone else, that kind of news would be more than enough to make it into the international motorcycle community. But for Bajaj, however, it clearly is not. Shortly after releasing the news about the CNG bike, the managing director spoke about how the Triumph project is progressing.
So far, he claims, they are successfully producing 20,000 of the existing Triumph 400s (that is, the Speed 400 and the Scrambler 400 X, if you are keeping track at home) per quarter. With a little extra effort, he estimates that the factory can realistically increase production to 30,000 units per quarter to keep up with the strong demand for these Triumphs.
When is the expansion of the factory expected to accommodate the increased production? Theoretically, by July 2024, if all goes as planned. Of course, there are still a few months to go, and even the best-intentioned plans can sometimes go awry. So, we will see what happens and when it happens.
But if all goes well, the Director-General says that Bajaj should be able to produce 10,000 Triumph motorcycles per month in September, just in time for the festive season in India. These bikes will be manufactured for both the domestic and international markets. But is another one coming?
