Mahindra has been at the two-wheeler game for the past few years, but it’s fair to say that their products such as the Centuro and the Gusto haven't enjoyed too much success in the Indian market. The 300cc Mojo that the company launched last year, though not a runaway success in terms of sales, has certainly established itself as well-known brand. At the recent announcement regarding this purchase of the rights to the BSA and Jawa brands, the company also outlined their two-wheeler plans for the future.
The biggest news was that Mahindra Two-Wheelers will be shifting its focus away from smaller offerings ie the Centuro and Gusto. This is not to say that the company will be axing the brands. Both the commuter bike and scooter will remain in production and will even receive full support in terms of spares and service. What changes however is the fact that Mahindra will significantly cut down the advertising spends on these two products and put a cap on future development for them.
What the company will focus on instead is the Mojo, which is set to become an umbrella brand encompassing its premium offerings going forward. Much like Bajaj has done with the Pulsar, offering multiple bikes with varying engine capacities and styles under the same brand, the Mojo brand will spawn more bikes with different form and function. And this will be kept separate from the newly-formed Classic Legends brand which will focus on making classic-looking motorcycles sporting the BSA (for Europe and the US) and Jawa (for India) monikers. There are other Indian companies who have taken similar approaches as well, like Royal Enfield with the Bullet and TVS with the Apache, but Bajaj has been the biggest success story here, and there's certainly room for Mahindra Mojo to play in this space. All you need to do is check out the custom concepts of the Mojo that were on display at Auto Expo 2016 to understand just what's possible with this platform.
It’s still not clear how Peugeot Scooters, which Mahindra acquired last year, will play into this equation, as the company is still working out the logistics of bringing this new brand to India. What was made clear however is that the initial push on the Peugeot front will be to strengthen its existing product lineup in Europe before anything else. From what we understand, Mojo will be a focused motorcycle brand with premium offerings. Whether Mahindra is able to make strong inroads into this segment with this new approach remains to be seen. But it’s certainly good news for buyers who will have a lot more variety of bikes to choose from when stepping into this 250cc-plus premium motorcycle category.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
