Indiancarsbikes

Recently, our roving eye in the sky, EarthFusion, spotted a Bajaj Boxer BM100 on the testing roundson the streets near the Bajaj factory at Akurdi, Pune. Soon after, we carried a story wondering whether Bajaj is planning to come up with a 100cc variant of the Boxer to improve sales in the commuter utility motorcycle segment in India. We’ve now learnt that Bajaj does indeed have the Boxer BM100 in its portfolio although the motorcycle is currently being exported to the Middle East and Latin American countries, with no presence domestically.

undefined The Bajaj Boxer BM100 features a 94.4cc air cooled engine armed with Bajaj’s ExhaustTec technology, which improves low end torque. This engine, essentially a single spark variant of the Discover 100 DTSi’s engine, produces a peak power of 7.6 Bhp and a peak torque of 7.5 Nm. The Boxer BM100 is positioned as a rugged utility motorcycle in markets abroad, just like the Boxer BM150 in the Indian motorcycle MARKET. That said the Boxer BM150 isn’t really finding enough traction in the rural markets of India, a segment that Bajaj has been very bullish on.

Lower fuel economy of the Boxer BM150when compared to the 100cc crop of best selling motorcycles that Hero MotoCorp sells is said to be major reason why the Boxer 150, despite a bigger engine at a value-for-money price tag, hasn’t found enough takers. So, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for Bajaj to launch the 100cc variant of the Boxer in the form of the BM100, as a cut price variant, which could once again take the fight up to the Hero MotoCorp HF-Dawn(Notice the name change from CD to HF due to Hero now not in joint venture with Honda).

With Honda breathing down on Bajaj Auto’s neck with a clear aim to usurp the latter’s position, Bajaj might very well want to fight back with cut price variants that could really put the pressure right back on Honda and Hero MotoCorp. While this might not be consonant with Rajiv Bajaj’s vision of building the most profitable motorcycles in the industry, MARKET share isn’t something any motorcycle maker worth its salt would want to cede to competition. With Honda all set to launch the Dream Yuga 110 in May 2012, the Boxer BM100 could be the perfect foil from Bajaj Auto. Watch this space..

The following review has been sourced from IndianCarsBikes - Mar 2012.