New Bajaj Avenger Street 150, Street 220 and Cruise 220 launched

Mumbai: Bajaj Auto Tuesday launched three new variants of its sports biking brand, the Avengers, and priced them under Rs 85,000 with a view to popularise leisure biking.

The Pune-based company rolled out three new models -- Avenger Cruise 220, Street 220 and the Street 150 -- all catering to leisure biking, a fast-growing sub-segment under the sports biking space.

The 220 cc bikes are priced at Rs 84,000 while the 150-cc commands a price tag of Rs 79,000, ex-showroom, Delhi.

The existing Avengers come with a 220-cc engine and are priced at Rs 81,700.

"The new Avenger series redefines the cruiser bike segment by offering cruising comfort and we hope to sell 20,000 units a month," Bajaj Auto President for motorcycles business Eric Vas said while unveiling the two-wheelers here.

The sports biking segment absorbs around 2.5 lakh units a month and the company hopes to popularise the sporting and cruise biking with these models, he added.

Vas said the new 150 cc model offers 10 per cent more torque than the 150-cc Pulser, and runs on an entirely new engine on its DTSi platform.

"The genuine cruiser segment has steadily grown over the years with the Avenger as the torch-bearer. We feel that by bringing in an additional style variant such as the Street, and offering the popular 150 cc capacity, we will significantly expand the cruiser segment.

"With the new Avenger models we shall strengthen our offerings and reinforce our leadership in the premium motorcycle segment," Vas said.

The Avenger range is manufactured at Bajaj's plant at Chakan in Pune and will also be exported soon.

Asked whether Bajaj will be scaling up its engines, he said not in the near future as the market is still evolving.

It can be noted that bike sales have been on a steady decline since the beginning of the year following rising rural distress. On an average, bike sales have been reporting around 10 per cent drop in monthly sales.

Asked whether Bajaj, too, has been faring badly in the hinterlands, Vas, without providing numbers, said his brands are doing better than last year, driven by its entry models like the CT100 and Platina.