Kinetic Motors launches 'Flyte'

New Delhi, Oct 15 (UNI) Kinetic Motors in association with Taiwan-based SYM today launched the 125 cc gearless scooter 'Flyte' priced at Rs 37,499 (ex-showroom Delhi).

The Kinetic-SYM 'Flyte' is targeted at women, the fastest growing user of two wheeler segment.

The 125 cc scooter, based on SYM's X'pro, is currently international best seller across 62 countries.

''Our outlook is extreme bullish and expect Rs 200 crore turnover from Flyte,'' said company Managing Director Sulajja Firodia Motwani.

The company plans to sell 3,000 units of Flyte by the end of this fiscal and 8,000 units by June 2008.

Crisil predicts a 11.4 per cent growth for the scooter market in the next six years and is expected to reach volumes of 12 million units by 2010.

Taking a cue from this growth, the company said it will focus on the scooter market but still continue to have a presence in the bike market in the smaller towns.

'' We will focus on scooter production as our partnership with SYM has given us the leverage and we have many more products to unveil,'' Ms Motwani said.

For the viability of the dealers in the small cities, we will continue to have a presence in the bike market, she added.

''For us India is the next country to expand and the second largest motorcycle market presents a lot of oppurtunity,'' said SYM Executive VP Harrison Liu.

SYM is a 1.1 billion dollar automobile company from Taiwan, manufacturing a complete range of automobiles from scooters, motocycles, ATVs as well as four wheelers.

Mr Liu, however, ruled out any immediate rollout of motorcyles in India.

''In future if markets mature and if the time is right we can offer motorcycles and have already drawn up plans for it. However, our priority is now on scooters,'' Mr Liu said.

Kinetic is banking heavily on the new Flyte after its margins suffered and expects turnover of Rs 200 crore from the scooter.

''500 units of Flyte will help us achieve profits and we expect that to happen by June 2008,'' Ms Firodia said.

The company is expected to launch two electric scooters in January and in March.

The investment for the production of Flyte is about Rs 15 crore and the company now plans to launch another scooter soon at an investment of Rs eight crore.

''We will launch a new scooter along with SYM soon and work on it has already begun. We will survey the market and check the demand for the scooter we have launched today to gauge the kind of variant the new scooter will be,'' said Ms Motwani.

The second scooter is expected to have the same platform but will include modifications to its styling and looks.

Kinetic also has plans to export Flyte to South Asian countries, to which it currently exports around 1,500 units a year.

UNI