The Champ

Venu Srinivasan has brought TVS Motor back in the reckoning in the Indian two-wheeler industry.

- Venkatesha Babu

Honne Gowda, 43, runs a small provision store in Doddaballapur, an hour’s drive from Bangalore. Most people here either depend on farming/dairy or do odd jobs in the country’s information technology capital. Every Friday, the store’s operations are taken over by Gowda’s wife, as he goes to the city for fresh supplies on his trusted steed — a moss green TVS XL. He swears by his slim nine-year-old moped and claims: “It can haul anything I need, from the various daily items I sell to fresh grass bales for the cattle. I have never had any issue with it. What I like most is affordability, low maintenance cost and reasonable mileage. Most houses here have a TVS moped.”

It is precisely this kind of brand loyalty among people in villages and smaller towns that helped TVS XL touch the 10-million sales mark last year, the second two-wheeler brand in India to achieve this milestone (besides Hero Splendor). It would not be an exaggeration to say that a very big part of the country’s rural economy moves on TVS XL mopeds, as attested by faithful users like Gowda.

However, even in this semi-urban town, there is a clamour for change. Gowda’s 16-year-old son Hemant wants an Apache bike for going to college. The father is more intent on the Jupiter scooter. Interestingly, Hemant isn’t aware that the high-end Apache bike he wants is made by the same TVS Motor Company (TVSMC) that his father swears by.