Rodeo RZ Sports launched by Mahindra

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Mahindra Two Wheelers, a part of the USD 15.4 billion Mahindra Group, on Wednesday launched the 125cc scooter 'Rodeo RZ' sports with 'Z' Series engine, which is aimed at college goers and younger audience in urban markets.

The scooter is priced Rs 2,500 higher than its popular selling Duro DZ which has a similar 125cc engine, Mahindra and Mahindra Senior Vice-President (Strategy and Market development) Viren Popli said on Wednesday.

"It is Rs 2,500 more expensive than the Duro. But it offers additional features like fuel lid for petrol in front, additional colours... basically this is for college goers and the young audience in urban markets," he told reporters here after unveiling the vehicle.

The 125cc segment has been seeing huge growth in the last one year, he said, adding Mahindra hopes to increase market share "by a couple more points very quickly" (with the launch of Rodeo RZ).

"Currently we have about six to eight per cent market share (in the scooter segment). My expectation is to increase it by couple of more points quickly," he said.

The company manufactures the scooters from its facility at Pithampur near Indore, which was recently upgraded to produce one million units a year. Mahindra has tied-up with Taiwan based SYM to manufacture the engine, Popli said.

He said they hoped to sell about 5,000 units per month compared to Duro DZ selling 10,000 units per month RPT per month. Asked how the company would position the vehicle compared to Duro DZ, he said "Duro was targeted at an older audience and comes with traditional styling. Since the launch of Duro DZ we have sold 3.5 lakh units so far... You should know Duro DZ is the largest selling model(for Mahindra)".

The company claims RZ125 would deliver 59.38 km per litre mileage (as per ARAI) and be immediately available at all retail outlets.

The RZ125 is priced at Rs 50,710 (ex-showroom Tamil Nadu), and Rs 49,575 (ex-showroom Andhra Pradesh), Rs 49,410 (ex-showroom Kerala) and Rs 48,930 (ex-showroom Karnataka).

On how many International two-wheeler companies are into the 125cc segment, he said "it is going to be a challenging exercise (for Mahindra). We are marathon runners and we will exactly do that", he said.

Recently Italian auto-major Piaggio entered the Indian market by relaunching 125cc Vespa, while Japanese two wheeler giant Yamaha also announced its proposal to enter the scooter segment later this year.