Indiantelevision.com Team

(2 April 2008 6:30 pm)

BANGALORE: Two wheeler major TVS Motor Company (TVS) launched a new scooter - “Scooty Teenz Electric’ in Karnataka today.

The company had earlier launched this scooter in its biggest ‘Scooty’ market Gujarat about two months ago and Karnataka is the second state where the new product has been launched.

TVS also plans to launch Scooty Teenz Electric in Tamil Nadu this month. The states on the launch horizon are Andhra Pradesh and Kerala next month. The company plans to complete a pan India rollout by June 2008 end.

The Scooty range targets the young urban female who would rather have a safe and stylish drive than a fast and powerful two-wheeler. The earlier offerings in this range are ‘Scooty’, a 75 cc scooter which has been replaced by the 90 cc ‘Scooty Plus’ and the TVS Teenz.

The still visual promo shows a young girl a on Scooty Teenz Electric with a middle aged pillion rider having a tag line ‘Chalo papa duniya dikhadhoon’, (Come papa, let me show you the world). As the name suggests, a young teenager wants to take her father around to see the world. TVCs’ will be aired once the national roll out is complete, according to TVS general manager of marketing S Srinivas. Until then, mass media communications will be limited to print and outdoor billboards. MacCann Erickson is the creative agency and Madison the media buying agency.

The vehicle is a meant for people who drive within a range of around 25 to 30 km in a day. TVS also plans to target people who use public transport. They could drive the vehicle to the a bus or railway station for an onward commute since the vehicle requires little parking space when compared to a four-wheeler.

The Scooty Teenz Electric, a battery operated vehicle, is powered by 800 watts and attains a top speed of 40 kmph with a low distance range of 40 kms at this spend. A speed selector enables longer range at lower speeds. At a higher range and speed of 25kmph, the vehicle could travel about 50 per cent more before the battery needs o be recharged. Full charging time from zero is around nine hours.

Though only about 300 units have been sold since the Gujarat launch in Ahemdabad in almost two months, Srinivas is confident of selling about 48000 to 50000 units of Scooty Teenz Electric during the current fiscal. Srinivas says that this volume could vary by large margins depending upon the support the vehicle receives from various state governments.

Himachal Pradesh has agreed to offer a Rs 8000 subsidy to each buyer of the Scooty Teenz Electric, while some states may offer a lower rate of sales tax or other sops, given the fact that the vehicle will help bring down pollution. TVS has been selling around 22000 units of the Scooty range – 20000 units of Scooty Plus and 2000 units of Scooty Teenz, informs Srinivas.