BSA Motors, which has seen its electric scooter sales fall far short of its forecasts, is set to launch a new model, ramp-up its dealer network and take up marketing campaigns to boost its electric scooter sales to 25,000 units in financial year 2009-10.

The company, which entered the electric two-wheeler market by launching five models of e-scooters in November 2008, has so far sold less than 2,000 units, much below its target of 5,000 units by March. “The sales have fallen far short of our targets due to lack of finance and delay in opening dealer outlets besides the market slowdown,” K B Srinivasan, general manager, BSA Motors told Financial Chronicle. “The response to our e-scooters has been good. However, we need to ramp-up our dealer and service network and undertake lot of awareness campaigns,” he said.

BSA Motors, a business unit of Tube Investments of India Ltd that is part of the $2.4 billion Murugappa Group, has so far opened about 30 dealer outlets across south India. It seeks to ramp-up the number of outlets to 100 over the next six months.

Srinivasan said that the electric scooter market in the country was seeing some consolidation with smaller players losing their position due to lack of service support.

“This will lead to shrinking volume levels in the market initially. However, volumes will go up once the bigger players ramp-up their operations,” he added.

BSA Motors also plans to launch a new e-scooter, which will be a superior product with improved motor and battery, in May or June to strengthen its product portfolio and boost sales, he said.

At present, it offers five models in the price range of Rs 28,600 and Rs 36,600, targeting youngsters aged between 14 and 30. At present, Street Rider and Roamer+ are its fastest selling models. The company is also planning to launch major advertising and product awareness campaigns.