Bajaj Auto Ltd on Thursday said the company has slashed prices of only the base variant of its CNG motorcycle Freedom 125 to make it "accessible" to a wider spectrum of customers. The automaker clarified that there has been no change in price of the top variant, which accounts for 72% of total CNG motorcycle sales.

“We have been made aware of some rumours and misconceptions that have originated from a research report that was published by a brokerage firm regarding the sales volumes and price cuts of ‘Freedom’ and select ‘Pulsar’ variant,” the Pune-based automaker says in a regulatory filing.

The report does not present a full or accurate picture, says the two-wheeler maker.

The dispatch numbers for Freedom 125 as per the said report is incorrectly stated to be 80,000, it says.

“As of 30th November 2024, the company has actually billed 67K units to dealers, with 40K units having been retailed during this period, of which 33K units were registered on the Vahan portal,” says Bajaj Auto. The closing stock is well within the norm required for a two-tiered distribution, the automaker says.

The Freedom portfolio currently has three variants in the market. The top variant, priced at ₹1.1 lakh (ex-showroom) is a significant driver of customer preference, accounting for 72% of retails. The price for this  remains unchanged ever since its launch, says Bajaj Auto.

To make the brand accessible to a fuller spectrum of customers, the portfolio has been expanded and modified based on early customer feedback, says Bajaj Auto. “This serves as the entry level version and accounts for 13% of retails. In response to the growing scale and indications of broader appeal of the product, this variant was repriced from ₹95,000 to ₹90,000 in end October,” it says. The mid variant offers a step up over the base, and accounts for 15% of retails. “The current product is a new/reconfigured variant that has been conceptualised based on initial feedback, with features different from what was originally envisaged at the time of the launch. This is now priced at ₹95,000,” says Bajaj Auto.

On Pulsar, Bajaj Auto says the Pulsar portfolio has over a dozen models of which some models have been priced up and some down in the last couple of months, as part of a regular exercise to drive competitiveness and profitability.