Bajaj, TVS spar over mileage claims, approach court

IT is yet another chapter in the Bajaj Auto-TVS Motors war for a bigger share in the Indian twowheeler market. Last time the two giants locked horns over patents. The two companies this time fight over fuel efficiency for their entry level bikes.

The Bajaj Auto CT 100B has been pitted against the TVS moped model, TVS XL 100.

TVS moved to the Madras High Court against advertisements made by Bajaj Auto dealers and alleged that false mileage claims were made about their bikes. TVS has got a two-week injunction against Bajaj and its dealers advertising campaign that TVS claimed was disparaging to their product and false. The court has restrained Bajaj from using these ads.

“TVS has taken offence to our advertisements by stating that it allegedly disparages their mopeds and has filed a Civil Suit in the Chennai High Court,” Eric Vas, president, motorcycles, Bajaj Auto said. The court has permitted Bajaj Auto to file their detailed response in two weeks and passed an interim order, temporarily restraining them from continuing with the advertisement for a period of two weeks.

“When the matter comes up, we will make our detail pleadings before the court in support of our advertisements defending that the advertisement issued by us was neither disparaging or denigrating TVS’s product/s but were merely a reflection of the customers’ experience as disclosed to us,” Vas said.

Bajaj Auto has said that given that CT100B was an entry level motorcycle their target customers naturally included moped customers as well. The company claimed that in the testing done in Indian Driving Cycle (IDC), CT100B saw a high fuel efficiency of 99 kmpl as compared to TVS XL that has a fuel efficiency of 67 kmpl.

Based on customer feedback, the company deployed a sales promotion comparing TVS XL moped and CT100, in terms of the real life mileage numbers.

Bajaj Auto said that CT100B bikes helped company raise its market share in the entry segment in Tamil Nadu. The company claimed that CT100 has been a hit since its launch and Bajaj gar nered a 35% national market share in the entry level motorcycle segment.