Taking a cue from what you had said earlier — that Pulsar is three years late and it has been one of the biggest learning for you. Do you think that from Chetak to Pulsar, one set of learning and now from Pulsar to Chetak in the EV space will be a big set of learning for the company and the industry? Also given the fact that the startups have gotten funding for EVs and have the set up ready, legacy industries are a bit too late or do you think that we are all on time?
Why do you want to strain EV and startup space, I do not understand. But we will address it. I like the quote of Charles Darwin when he says that it is not the most intelligent or the strongest of the species that survive, but the ones which are most adaptive to change. So as competition has come, the marketplace is changing and we would like to emphasise not only this market that all of you are familiar with but the global marketplace which we are a little more familiar with. What is the sign of a champion in the auto industry? The sign of a champion is that you are able to adapt not one year, two years, three years but this is a 75-year-old company and it has adapted over and over again.
Sometimes, the challenge may be scooter to motorcycle, sometimes it may be regulation, sometimes it may be competition, sometimes it may be cost, as it is right now and as you saw in our results yesterday, sometimes it may be electric disruption.
In fact, Indian two-wheeler makers have battled the four Japanese companies very successfully. If you take the 150CC and above sports motorcycle space, if you put together Enfield and Bajaj and TVS, we have 70-80% share. The point I am making is that good Indian two-wheeler companies are not really as lightweight as maybe some startups would like to think we are.
The question is who are you going to bet on? Are you going to bet on “legacy companies” as you call us or are you going to bet on the startups? I would bet on BET. BET means Bajaj, Enfield and TVS. I would bet on BET because they are champions. They have demonstrated. They have track record.
Two things are very clear today. First of all, if we launched a motorcycle in October, you will get it in November. It is not that if we launch in 2021 you have to wait till 2022. That is the startup way, that is not the legacy way from a consumer point of view.
From a company point of view, as I have said before, their business model is a cash burn model. Our business model is a cash flow model. We have to make sure we make money when we make a motorcycle. So, of course, we operate very differently.
Now there are startups out there that we respect. Of course, the biggest one is Ola. But we have to still see them produce something and sell something. No, no I was not being sarcastic, I am just stating as a fact. They have not produced anything yet, they have not sold anything yet. There is Ather, that we enormously respect because they have really demonstrated capability. In Pune for example there is a company called Tork Motors that is going to make electric motorcycle. We were all in a meeting two years ago at NITI Aayog. There was a three-wheeler fellow called SmartE, I could not remember the name. So the startups are Ola, Ather, Tork, SmartE and are in the marketplace and they are doing well.
But the reason I would bet on BET is because we are champions. There is a saying breakfast of champions. You know what champions eat for breakfast? Champions eat oats for breakfast. You know OATS?
OATS matlab Ola, Ather, Tork and SmartE. Toh abhi picture abhi baaki hai (The movie isn’t over yet).
