Bajaj Auto has revealed that the company's market share has strengthened in the super sports segment to 59 percent in May 2015, from the earlier 10 percent in June 2013.
This puts Bajaj ahead of all other international competitors in the segment. Bajaj's latest bike, the Pulsar RS200, was launched in March to spearhead Bajaj’s foray into the super sports segment. Their presence here was earlier represented by the KTM line-up.
The bike is powered by an engine similar to the one used in the Pulsar 200 NS, but gets fuel injection here. This 199.55cc, four-stroke engine makes 24.2bhp at 9,750 rpm and 1.9kgm of torque at 8,000rpm. The base model of the Pulsar RS200 is priced at Rs 1.21 lakh and the ABS version costs Rs 1.33 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune). In this price range, the RS 200’s main competitors are the Yamaha R15, the CBR 150R, and the CBR 250R.
The Pulsar RS 200 was well received in the market. When launched, Bajaj had expected to sell about 2500 units every month. But in May 2015 alone, the model sold 4,034 units, with almost half being that of the ABS-equipped version. In the same month, Yamaha sold 2,187 R15s and Honda sold 692 units of CBR 150Rs and 319 units of the CBR 250Rs respectively.