[hemanth.anand]

The reply from Ather is hilarious
And Today is supposed to be National Oatmeal day!!

[moralfibre]

So the offspring of the Doyen of Bombay club suddenly rises from nowhere to launch the next Pulsar wanting to stir up a controversy.

Fact 1: Bajaj has launched one model after another of just the Bajaj Pulsar over the last 20 years. Technology evolution for them is adding extra spark plugs to an existing cylinder. Or varying displacement by 10-20cc depending on their CFO's asks and then launching the same product over extended period of time.

Fact 2: Technology evolution for Bajaj means adding one extra cog to a rickshaw and launching a crap product called the Quadricycle. When authorities make it tough for them to compete, just throw a tantrum citing indifferences to their industry. Well, pre-1993 they could control everything from black marketing their own scooters.

Fact 3: They were caught napping in their beds while the likes of Ather, Ola, Tork, etc came out of nowhere and are drilling new holes in the balance sheet of these so called well established bets.

Fact 4: Bajaj's offering in this space has been a mediocre Chetak! Ya, the same Chetak that gave them a place in the license raj market for 40 YEARS!! And guess what, nobody even looked at it twice. Royal Enfield's corporate matters are already out in the open. Their CEO (and promoter) was nearly thrown out of his chair not too long ago.

Fact 5: Yeah, they will come up with their own versions of an offering sooner than later. But, the last person in that lot will surely be Bajaj. It takes a mindset change, a completely different culture to induce a paradigm shift in the organizations strategy and I can clearly see that Bajaj with their Chetak wasn't cut out for it. Comparing them to the likes of Porsche or Ford who have managed to challenge new age companies isn't fair. Bajaj is nowhere close to the might or mindset to challenge status quo.


With that, good luck to Bajaj for raking in some PR space in the news with that sly attempt. If he were serious, he would have launched a competitor to OATS and not just another Pulsar since 20 years.

[Bullfrog]

Originally Posted by moralfibre

So the offspring of the Doyen of Bombay club suddenly rises from nowhere to launch the next Pulsar wanting to stir up a controversy.

Fact 1: Bajaj has launched one model after another of just the Bajaj Pulsar over the last 20 years. Technology evolution for them is adding extra spark plugs to an existing cylinder. Or varying displacement by 10-20cc depending on their CFO's asks and then launching the same product over extended period of time.

Fact 2: Technologhy evolution for Bajaj means adding one extra cog to a rickshaw and launching a crap product and call it Quadricycle. When authorities make it tough for them to compete, just throw a tantrum citing indifferences to their industry. Well, pre-1993 they could control everything from black marketing their own scooters.

Fact 3: They were caught napping in their beds while the likes of Ather, Ola, Tork, etc came out of nowhere and are drilling new holes in the balance sheet of these so called well established bets.

Fact 4: Bajaj's offering in this space has been a mediocre Chetak! Ya, the same Chetak that gave them a place in the license raj market for 40 YEARS!! And guess what, nobody even looked at it twice. Royal Enfield's corporate matters are already out in the open. Their CEO (and promoter) was nearly thrown out of his chair not too long ago.

Fact 5: Yeah, they will come up with their own versions of an offering sooner than later. But, the last person in that lot will surely be Bajaj. It takes a mindset change, a completely different culture to induce a paradigm shift in the organizations strategy and I can clearly see that Bajaj with their Chetak wasn't cut out for it. Comparing them to the likes of Porsche or Ford who have managed to challenge new age companies isn't fair. Bajaj is nowhere close to the might or mindset to challenge status quo.


With that, good luck to Bajaj for raking in some PR space in the news with that sly attempt. If he were serious, he would have launched a competitor to OATS and not just another Pulsar since 20 years.

Very well summed up. Few other interesting observations from one of those old manufacturers who thrived in license raj.

- Declares age of scooter is over. Makes Bajaj a motorcycle company. Media give him all credit. Then Honda launches Activa and walks all over him

- Declares Bajaj will make scooters only when REML starts making scooters. market makes him eat his words and he is forced to launch Chetak that is a flop

- Declares that 125cc segment is dead and exits. Then again competitors wake him up to reality

To me he seems more and more like privileged industrialist similar to political scions that think they can make all walk the way they dictate.

To say the truth he is completely out of sync with times. He is good at certain segments and maintaining to run the business. Not for long before the onslaught of unicorns

[Sran]

Rajeev Bajaj was one of the biggest gainers during license raj and he is now just a perennial foul mouthed octagenerian. Don't even remember what Bajaj has offered after Pulsar, that too some 20 years back. He along with our other legacy business houses have never bothered to innovate, all they wanted was a JV with foreign manufacturers which erstwhile goverments happily provided and loot Indian consumers by selling outdated global products. On the other hand there was Dhirubhai a visionary, who saw all their dirty tactics and made this country reliable on many fronts. Dhirubhai single handedly changed the clothing industry by making cheap polyster fabrics so that poor Indians can atleast wear shirts and pants. Shirts and pant lengths were sold at control rates because productions were rationed and old money people like Bajaj controlled and decided what and when Indians can wear. People like him should not speak on any matter let alone the innovative direction automobile sector is taking. If left to him and his pals like the Lals and others, we would still have been waiting for our turn to get hold of chetak and diesel genset run bullet.

But lets's think about what Ola is doing? Who is heading their R&D, do we have a knowledge about that person? What is the capital outlay department wise? Who and where are they building their parts? I have read about Ola scooty but still do not fully know about their body fabrication unit. Are they really manufacturing anything or they are just assemblers? The way ola cabs are run, leaves little to no imagination that Bhavish is an incompetent leader with no organisational pedigree. I will be really surprised if the first batch of ola scooties run without any major issues.

Originally Posted by payeng

No sane investor would invest in a ride hailing business right now. I would stay away miles from it.
No Stickiness with Customer, No pricing power, Not Profitable.

There is nothing to like about these startups, being run on shady investments, yet they are finding buyers in secondary market. Zomato is a good example of this. Young naive Indian youngsters are being pulled into crap cryptos by crap fintech startups with bombardment of eye catching advertisments.

[landcruiser123]

Catchy statement, but I agree with Mr. Bajaj.

The components are very simple and will be imported from China. BET can:
1. Flex its muscles to make sure their supply chain gives them high-quality components at cheaper prices
2. Use its manufacturing prowess which the newbies will struggle with
3. Penetrate rural markets which are big on two-wheelers

[KANNURAN]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

It's not just Bajaj auto. It's the same with Bajaj Electricals.

To add to all your very valid points:

Bajaj can be credited with the dumbest strategy blooper the Indian automotive space has seen, in their prior de-focusing from Scooters; and that too, in an era when the market was not as complicated or competitive as it is now.

Talking of OATS, they are focused and gallant Young-Turk MERITOCRACIES that would not go as astray as a Pied Piper led army of YES-MEN.

[neerajku]

He is turning out to be rebel without a pause. Last bit of his famous outspokenness was on GOI s economic policies to combat the slowdown, He thought it was peripheral, not impactful and misdirected. He was a votary of higher fiscal deficit, infltation and public debt be damned. We know the economy did not listen. to him.... dissing competition is his Kodak moment....

[abhkop]

Surely the traditional OEMs are surely facing the heat from the new age companies. The oldies which traditionally operate in a so called cash flow model are seeing the newcomers creating an EV market with the so called cash-burn model.

Bajaj has taken an extremist route and has provided some free marketing for OATS

Hero on the other hand has a slightly different opinion to Mr. Bajaj
As stated by MD of Hero, “In case the market is disrupted in a manner that we are required to engage in cash-burn to get into the market with pricing where we have to become aggressive and get a fair share, then we will do it"

The startups have a headstart and they definitely have to evolve in terms of operations, product quality and after sales service.

Interesting times ahead. In Bajaj's own words "picture abhi baaki hai."

Link : https://auto.economictimes.indiatime...iness/87336251

[Mafia]

Talk is just that, talk.

If he is talking about eating OATS this early in the day, I imagine he is threatened by their business plans and markets interest and reaction.

Bajaj thrived in the closed market in the first few decades of their existence.

OATS seem to have set the cat among the pigeons then. Let's see if OATS falters or fails or blows everyone out of the water.

[jkrishnakj]

I am sure similar dialogues were heard in the board rooms of Blackberry and Nokia. We all know what happened next.

OLA is certainly making all the right moves and noises. Lets see how this pans out. Will be a great case study for the immediate future.

[driven646]

He could be right , considering Ola hasn't even rolled out a single scooter till date and there are frauds like Nikola motors in the electric space.

Or he could be like Steve Ballmer making fun of and criticising the first iPhone at its launch - time will tell.

Mr Bajaj does come across as quite unlikable though, remember him confidently predicting the death of the scooter before the Honda Activa.

[Car Fan]

Of course Bajaj is giving "attitude" and deserves rebuttal from his competitors, but blaming him for licence raj etc is a bit much. He's built a globally competitive auto giant which is more than you can say about Ola and Ather or many of our celebrated Nifty 50 companies.

He may eventually eat his words, but we are far from there yet.

[whitewing]

Time will tell if Mr. Bajaj will get to eat his OATS, but the rest of the points he makes are all on the mark as of date and he does tell he has immense respect for Ather.

Imagine Bajaj doing an Ola on the customers (taking booking money, no test rides, a sliding window on when test rides can happen) - this very forum would have eaten up his reputation as an auto manufacturer.
And if he starts burning money like other startups, the stock market will eat up his and his family's fortune in short order.

[gauravanekar]

My opinion is that Bajaj is not talking realistically. Also the euphoria surrounding Ola and its plans are too unrealistic as well. The only long term winner I see in all this is Ather, they are honing their manufacturing skills, building a manufacturing organisation, a stable base before scaling up.
I don’t see how it’s realistically possible to build a huge all new factory for a product which has never been mass manufactured by a bunch of people put together by attracting people from all over the place.
It takes certain time for organisation to settle into a work culture.

Some members opined that the existing supply chain of Bajaj would help them to transition to EVs quickly. Again, I don’t think it will turn true as well. The manufacturing techniques, design, test methods are different enough to make it difficult for the tier 1 to adopt not withstanding the fact that the many parts will be eliminated from BOMs of ev.
Which of the current tier1 suppliers located in two wheeler hubs like Pune, Chennai, ncr can make efficient inverter, at minimum cost?

[shivs2003]

I'd like to give my 2 cents:

Background: I work in the auto sector. I have firsthand knowledge of the power/resources of an OEM 2 wheeler. Ola is by no means close to it. The infrastructure, R&D, supplier base, supplier quality, import/export capabilities, free cash availability, management power, etc, surpasses Ola by a large extent.

In line with GTO, Tesla has been the only player in the "EV" market who has successfully been a new entrant (non IC OEM). Despite that, initial Tesla vehicles had a large number of quality, fit/finish, technical issues. Not to mention a huge number of supply chain issues. Also, Tesla almost got blown out of the water by it's investors (simply google the following, “tesla trouble 20XX” and change the year from 2012 to 2019). Model S was released in 2012, Model X in 2015, Model 3 in 2017. From 2012 to 2019 (despite the release of 3 vehicles), stock price was always under USD 100! The surge came only after 2020. Elon's recent success is EXTREMELY recent. He invested in Tesla in 2004, it took him a long time to get here.

Bajaj (& BET in general) is not a “PERFECT” 2W OEM, but it has all the resources available. Ola was founded in 2010, and has not manufactured a single product yet. That is not a small point. Please understand that manufacturing involves a very large number of departments and resources in comparison to a “ride share/ride hailing” company. In the latter, your primary focus is your code and its efficiency as a platform. In the former, you have to focus on cash, assets, suppliers, after sales. Not a small gap, but a big one. When Rajiv Bajaj mentions cash flow vs cash burn, he is talking about the fact that even when his “risky EV” division may not spring a huge profit, his overall organization is more that capable/strong to provide investors and banks comfort in his “risky EV” division. That does not apply to OLA, they are beholden to Private Equity investors (who we know, simply want to go public and cash in). Bajaj has skin in the game, he has a reputation which is decades older than he is.

The auto sector has an extremely clear realization, that they have to evolve of die. Unlike the mammoths (VW/Ford/GM/Toyota), the smaller/medium regional players (Hero, HMSI, Bajaj, M&M, Tata, Hyundai, Nissan) have the agility to pull of that evolution.