Mumbai - Polaris Industries, a US-based manufacturer of snowmobiles, ATV and neighbourhood electric vehicles, is planning to assemble motorcycle and terrain vehicles in India.
Earlier, the company had been importing these vehicles mainly from the US for the domestic market. The company has a joint venture with Eicher in India that manufactures and markets personal utility vehicle Multix.
Indian Motorcycle, a wholly-owned division of Polaris Industries, is focused mainly in the 1200cc market.
“With the CKD (completely knocked down) units, Indian Motorcycle's market share (in the country) can double. This is part of our mid-term horizon, which is 2-3 years,” said Pankaj Dubey, MD and Country Head, Polaris India Pvt Ltd to a leading news agency.
Also, the cost of the motorcycles would reduce considerably, as import duties are high on fully-built vehicles.
Eicher Polaris is also eyeing at launching new products, including one before the end of this year and three in the next year. The company is also planning to assemble its all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) also called quad bikes in India to be more price competitive.
The ATV segment has been growing steadily at 15-20 percent and half of the business is driven by sales in tourist destinations, Dubey said adding that, almost 50 percent of the total sales are attributed to tourist destinations, followed by private parties at 35 percent and Defense businesses account 15 percent to the company's retail volume.
