TVS_King

After making successful inroads into states like Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, TVS Motor Company, on 9th October'08, has launched its 'TVS King' autorickshaw in Gujarat, but this time with the CNG version. India's third largest bikemaker had earlier forayed into the three-wheeler market in the country with the LPG and petrol versions of the aforesaid model in a number of states. TVS King comes with 200cc two-stroke low friction engine, electric start or hand start, twin headlamps, futuristic design with combination of power mileage, as claimed by sources. The company has added attractive features to the vehicle including a car-like dashboard with fuel level indicators and mobile phone charging socket, dual tone high quality seats, and an integrated bumper. Priced at Rs. 115,800 (hand-start model) and Rs. 119,800 (electric-start model), TVS King has tied up with non banking financial institutions such as IndusInd and Shriram Transport and Finance Corporation. While the product would be available initially in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Vapi and Rajkot, the company will expand its footprint to other markets of Gujarat in a phased manner. The company expects around 30 per cent of its three-wheeler sales in Gujarat, and has also tied up with dealers like Kataria, Oceanic and Shri Sai Motors.

As per the company's website, TVS King promises a good mileage and is fitted with a higher capacity engine with the peak torque at lower rpm to take care of gradability without frequent gearshifts. The engine operates at lower revolutions for a given road speed thereby improving the reliability of the engine. Refined quality and engineering skills ensure that the TVS King will deliver high value to its customers both in terms of styling and efficiency. The vehicle comes with powerful twin 35 watt headlamps with bigger and brighter rear tail lamps and has a single larger area windshield with laminated glass. Attractive interiors that add to the styling of the vehicle include an attractive dashboard, instrument cluster, bottle and magazine holders, dual tone high quality seats, and an integrated bumper, tweaked to match that of a car. The TVS King's electric start option reduces driver's fatigue. The vehicle has better head & legroom in the passenger compartment while the suspension and the seat are positioned so as to optimize superior ride quality for longer duration.

According to a senior representative of TVS, the company has invested over Rs. 120 crore in a state-of-art manufacturing plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu with an installed capacity of 1 lakh vehicles per annum. In the last six months since the national roll out of three wheeler vehicles, it has manufactured and sold around 2,000 autorickshaws and aims to reach full capacity utilisation by 2011. He added that within three years, it also aims to clock Rs. 700 crore (in the three wheeler segment), which will be 10 per cent of TVS' total turnover (Rs. 7,000 crore). He also stated that the company is currently eyeing to notch up 12,000-15,000 units of autrickshaw in the first year of operations. He concluded by saying that Gujarat is a major market for the company in any segment including three wheelers.

It has also been learnt that TVS plans to establish around 40 exclusive sales and service outlets for the three-wheelers and also scale up the number of dealers from the present 70 to 100. The company has pumped in around Rs. 120 crore at the Hosur plant, which will manufacture all the versions of TVS King. It is now looking at a market share of around 30 per cent in the three-wheeler market by financial year end 2009. Besides it would also export three-wheelers to more than 20 countries in a phased manner.

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