AFTER the runaway success of the two reworked variants of the Splendor and the Passion, Hero Honda's premium commuter (100cc) segment motorbikes, the company has sent two of its executive segment bikes - the Ambition and the CBZ - to the design board for refreshing their styling and finish.
Industry sources said that Hero Honda is now looking to replicate the success that the restyling brought to its commuter segment bikes. While the Ambition is being redesigned due to its inherent lack of new age styling, the CBZ is being overhauled for enabling it to tackle competition from the newer bikes in the power segment such as the Bajaj Pulsar DTSi and the TVS Fiero.
Sources said that Hero Honda is not just planning to restyle the CBZ, but is also looking at tweaking the bike's 156cc engine. The company may be considering replacing the engine or just stop with a further infusion of technology to boost its performance. The main restyling effort will be focused on the CBZ's headlamp, tail-lamp, fairing and overall fit and finish quality levels.
However, company officials, while confirming that the Ambition is being restyled, denied that there are any plans currently for a revamp of the CBZ. Speaking to Business Line, Mr Atul Sobti, Senior Vice-President, Hero Honda Motors, said that there are no plans currently to overhaul the CBZ, but the new Ambition is scheduled to hit the roads by the end of the current fiscal. Hero Honda will continue to leverage the strength of the Ambition brand in the new variant also, just as it did with the Splendor + and the Passion Plus.
The need to introduce new restyled variants of the Ambition and the CBZ would become imperative for Hero Honda as the company's sales in this segment has started dipping. Hero Honda's sales in November 2003 in the `125cc and above but less than 250cc' category was just 4,658 bikes compared to 11,281 bikes in November 2002. Again of the bikes sold in November this year, a large portion would have been sales of the Karizma, the 223cc bike introduced earlier this year.
On the contrary, Bajaj Auto's sales in this segment has grown more than 33 per cent year-on-year during November 2003 and TVS Motor's sales during the same period has doubled.
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