In a time where things look increasingly murky for KTM, and talk about increasing Pierer Bajaj's investment in the multi-brand-holding European moto behemoth is on the table, it seems like the perfect time to dive into a deeper look at Bajaj's motorcycle sales over the past few years.
We've talked about Bajaj's manufacturing partnerships with KTM and Husqvarna in the past, as well as its more recent partnership with Triumph to craft the well-received Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 X. But if you've spent any time in India, or indeed in plenty of other countries outside the US, then chances are excellent that you may have seen, or possibly ridden, Bajaj-branded bikes.
And even if you've only ridden in the US, you've still likely encountered bikes made by Bajaj out in the wild. For those unfamiliar, Bajaj's long manufacturing partnership with (and significant investment in) KTM and Husqvarna means that Bajaj is the company that makes KTM and Husqvarna's small-displacement bikes.
Do you like the 390 Duke, or the 390 Adventure, or the Vitpilen 401 or Svartpilen 401? All four of those bikes are made by Bajaj.
Looking at Bajaj Auto Limited's annual reports, the company divides its motorcycle units sold reporting a few different ways. Domestic units sold and international units sold are reported separately. There's also a section for what the company calls "Probiking," which is text and a table all about the KTM and Husqvarna bikes made and sold by the company.
And for FY2024, there's now a new section for Triumph, since that's the first year that the new 400cc single-cylinder platform made for Triumph was launched to the international motorcycle-buying public.
One other note I should include here: Bajaj Auto's fiscal year reporting isn't congruent with calendar years. I'm writing this in November, 2024, which means we're technically in the middle of Q3 of FY 2025 for Bajaj's reporting purposes.
Without further ado, let's look at annual motorcycle sales for Bajaj from FY2020 through FY2024.
That's, say it with me now, a lot of bikes, any way you cut it.
In most years, as you might expect in such a motorbike-happy country as India, Bajaj's domestic sales are usually higher than its exports. But in 2022, interestingly, its exports far exceeded its domestic sales.
If we zoom in exclusively on Bajaj's report of KTM motorcycle sales in India over the same time period, those numbers are also not small. In fact, FY2024 saw the most KTMs sold by volume in the country since their partnership began.
What about Triumph? The chart here won't be as interesting to see, I'm afraid, since those bikes had only been on sale for not even one entire calendar year when Bajaj put its FY2024 annual report together.
At the time of its reporting, Bajaj said, the Triumphs had only been on sale for about nine months. But in that short time, Bajaj had already recorded over 40,000 sales of the two Triumph 400s combined, because demand was extraordinarily high. By now, several months after the fact, those sales numbers are undoubtedly higher.
It will be interesting to see how the Triumph sales grow over time, as more data is gathered (and more Triumph 400 variants are released).
While I didn't make a table for it, one other thing I'd like to note is that Bajaj brought back its Chetak badge on an EV scooter a couple of years ago. For EV naysayers, it might be interesting to note that Bajaj reported Chetak EV sales of 115,702 in FY2024. That's a 119 percent jump over the 36,260 Chetak EVs it sold in FY2023.
Although it's true that India has been pushing EV adoption pretty strongly, that also means there is competition in the segment from the likes of Ola Electric, Ather, and others. And yet, sales of Chetak EVs are growing at a rather impressive rate.
What will any of this mean for the future of KTM? Maybe something, maybe nothing, but it's pretty clear that Bajaj knows how to sell a whole lot of bikes.
