Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the call today. Welcome to Bajaj Auto's Q4 and FY 2024 earnings conference call. On today's call, we have with us Mr. Rakesh Sharma, Executive Director, and Mr. Dinesh Thapar, Chief Financial Officer. We will begin our call with the opening remarks from Rakesh on the business and operational performance of the quarter, and Dinesh will take you through our financial highlights. We will then open the forum for Q&A. Over to you, sir.
Thank you, Anand, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the call. Thank you all very much for coming. We hope to make it worth your time. I must begin by saying we are absolutely delighted to have established multiple records in FY 2024. Highest ever revenue, highest ever EBITDA and PAT, highest ever free cash flow, highest spares revenue, highest Pulsar volumes, highest three-wheeler volumes, and highest ever KTM volumes in India. Another notable achievement, which I must mention, was the World-Class TPM Award from the Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance, JIPM. We are the first Indian company and the 31st company in the world to receive this credited award.
Now, Q4, though it was not a record quarter, but it was the second-best quarter of a record year, with 24% growth in volume, 29% in revenue, and 34% in EBITDA, just missing the INR 2,000 crore PAT milestone by a small margin. All this delivered with a muted export performance makes it quite satisfying. Going forward, our stance remains to drive hard on top line growth without diluting our best-in-class profitability. We believe that the environment offers us such an opportunity, but it is a complex situation. On the positive side, we expect the domestic industry to grow at a good rate of 7%-8% per annum, with the upper half of the demand pyramid growing significantly faster. Consumer optimism is improving, reflected in loan tenure and finance, financing penetration. Overseas, except for a few markets, the recovery in most has commenced.
Growing penetration of EVs is opening up new segments for us. The cost environment is benign, and the gentle devaluation of the Indian rupee is helpful for our exports. However, currencies in emerging markets remain fragile. In large markets for us, like Nigeria and Bangladesh, there has been runaway inflation and customers have to come to terms with that. Domestic car policy changes may impact the development of EVs, and then there are the geopolitical issues, which affect both markets and supply chains. It is difficult to anticipate the precise shape, timing, and location of opportunities. Hence, our approach is to focus on our positioning, preparedness, and response. Indeed, our architecture of independent SBUs, distinct brands, and an array of over 60 models gives us a broad interface with the market while retaining focus through SBUs.
Hence, we believe we are well poised to leverage the opportunities and keep growing faster than the industry, as was achieved in FY 2024. Now, let us examine our preparedness SBU-wise. Export business unit. The macroeconomic and the geopolitical issues continue to be a challenge, though the number of markets severely affected has been reducing. We have divided the overseas markets into three sets. Stressed markets. These are now Nigeria, Bangladesh, Kenya, Egypt, and Argentina. Second, the recovering markets, which are mostly the balanced markets, and thirdly, the new markets, which is a clutch of new territories and new segments in existing markets where we are going to enter or have recently entered. For our FY 2025 planning, we have taken a very cautious view of the stressed markets, an aggressive approach in the recovering markets, and a strong launch in the new markets and new segments.
While it is difficult to precisely estimate prospects of the stressed countries, in the recovering markets, most countries are doing better, particularly in LATAM and ASEAN. This powered the performance in H2 and Q4 , where most countries through a 26% growth in our Pulsar brand. We will continue to build on this in FY 2025 too. Coming to new markets, the new plant in Brazil will start production by June, allowing us to service the pent-up demand and rapidly scale up the network. In this quarter, we will expand our presence in Europe. We are also delighted that the Egyptian government has formally recognized the category of quadricycles for public transportation, and we will commence the first exports of Qute to Egypt within this month.
As you know, the three-wheeler format is banned in Egypt in 2022, so the recognition of Qute opens a potentially large segment, which we will steadily develop. On this basis, despite a cautious view of the stressed markets, we expect FY 2025 to be better than FY 2024 volume and much better in revenue terms. Domestic motorcycle business unit. In Q4 , our retails grew at twice the rate of others, and in the 125 cc plus segment, our retails grew four times that of others. 75% of our business comes from the 125 cc plus segment, while for the industry, the ratio is 52%, up marginally from 49% in FY 2023. Consequently, our market share in the upper half stands at 27%, a gain of 5%, and just two percentage points away from leadership.
At the start of the year, we were 10 percentage points behind the leader, so we closed the gap by 8 percentage points. This is the outcome of a slew of well-targeted new launches, nine of them in FY 2024, spanning the 125 cc to 250 cc class, which means we have a proposition for all segments of customers, from the commuter-oriented, style-inspired or high-performance-led customers across all demographics. Pulsar has now become an INR 10,000 crore brand. Further six models will be launched in H1 of FY 2025, beginning with the biggest Pulsar in early May, ensuring that we set a relentless pace and are always top of mind of the customer. We will also take aim at the mileage-conscious commuter by launching the world's first CNG bike, which will halve the commuting expenses of the common man.
Besides fuel economy, the bike will have a standout style, best-in-class comfort, and a dual fuel capability with both CNG and petrol fuel options on the same vehicle. The mileage-conscious customer is spread across the 100 cc to 125 cc commuter segment and is well over 600,000 units per month. Over 60% of this is covered by the CNG infrastructure, hence the opportunity is exciting. With this, we will have a position in all the motorcycle segments, setting us up to continue to grow faster than the industry. Commercial vehicles, the three-wheeler BU, maintained its rock solid performance with an overall market share of 78% in FY 2024, up 5% from FY 2023. The recovery in this sector is now almost complete in most regions, and we will witness organic growth year onwards, largely led by the expansion of the CNG network.
However, while we will hold market share in the ICE segment, growth will be driven by e-autos, particularly in markets where ICE autos are restricted. This is almost 45% of the industry, and it is currently served by the Erix and presents a fresh new opportunity for growth. Our EV three-wheelers have been very well accepted and are now available in 60 cities, giving us a market share of 30% in such addressed markets. We will rapidly scale up EV presence across the country, and as we do so, we will focus harder on the restricted markets, cannibalizing the end-of-life Erix. And the evidence of this cannibalization has been studied and experienced by us in the last few months. In Q1 , we will more than double our presence, adding one store for EV auto every two days.
The advancing CNG network, our solid presence in it, combined with the scale-up in EVs, particularly in markets not available to us thus far, should drive handsome growth in our three-wheeler SBU. Chetak business unit. Chetak did well to close the year with the number three position, up from number six or seven at the start of the year, in a fiercely competitive environment. The growth of EVs should continue, perhaps at lower rates, despite the changes in the subsidy regime, mainly by continuing to cannibalize the ICE scooter. This again is a new opportunity for Bajaj. We have undertaken a rapid expansion of the network, building on product acceptance and a strong pull from our existing dealers in other BUs. The 200 stores will be increased to 600 within the H1 , giving us outstanding depth and coverage.
Upgrade of Chetak in Q4 and the impending launch of a new Chetak in Q1 should ensure that our sales continue to grow every quarter, though April may see a dip in the industry due to advancements made in March. Robust supply chain and R&D work have ensured that we need to be swimming at the deep end of the red ocean, and the drag of a growing two-wheeler EV business on corporate margins has been significantly mitigated. We are continually, continually investing in cutting-edge technical capability. Chetak Technology Limited, a 100% subsidiary, will now be singularly led by this mission. The business teams are also being expanded. Two-wheeler business unit. This BU houses two brands, actually three, KTM, Husqvarna and Triumph. Each, KTM and Triumph, each have a dedicated network of sales and service. KTM had its highest ever year, as I mentioned.
The new-gen KTM and the recently introduced Husqvarna range should help us build on this best ever year. In FY 2025, we will introduce the big bikes of KTM in select cities, and invest behind the fundamental development of the sports category in close partnership with teams of KTM Austria. In the Triumph business, we have three key initiatives: scale up the domestic network to 150 stores within H1, develop the brand and offer a top-class differentiated experience, and support Triumph UK to successfully expand business in overseas markets. We have exported over 19,000 bikes to 57 countries and commenced retail in 50 of them. The initial reports are promising, and we see a good upside in exports. We are anticipating expansion of the portfolio in H2, which, combined with network as well as brand development, should steadily drive up the volume and win share.
Finally, our captive finance company, DACL, commenced operations and has started to build its book since first January, and will continue to expand its territory coverage through FY 2025. In summary, this is the year we really scale up while holding leadership shares in existing segments and markets. I hope you have some appreciation of our preparedness and positioning to realize the opportunities before us, and I hope I've been able to convey the basis of our optimism and excitement for FY 2025. Thank you very much. And now let me hand it over to our CFO, Dinesh Thapar.
Thank you, Rakesh. Good evening, everyone. As always, thank you for joining us for this call. Given that we've reported both quarterly and annual financial results this time around, let me start with the commentary on the quarter and then round up, what has truly been a landmark year for the business. Starting with the quarter. On domestic markets, you just heard Rakesh say that the industry has continued to see growth across businesses, although a bit lower than the buoyancy of the previous quarter, which had an upbeat festive season. And when I say growth here, I'm essentially referring to a comparison versus same time last year, because compared to the previous quarter, it is expectedly lower given the seasonality then.
The motorcycles industry, as has been the case for some time now, was led by the low double-digit growth in the 125 cc plus segment, while M1, M2, was at a muted, low single-digit growth. As for us, we delivered another share gain performance, growing well ahead of market yet again, but more particularly in the 125 cc segment, where we have registered growth rates that was 4x versus the rest of the industry. Consistent story that you have now heard from us for many quarters. The electric scooters industry hit its peak in March, given the impending transition from FAME II to the EMPS scheme, effective April 1, that was announced through the quarter. For only the second time, the month saw a breach of the 1 lakh units per month.
You know, the last time this happened was in May, again, triggered then by the subsidy change. In what was a highly competitive market context in the quarter, as indeed for the most part of the year, with many moving parts on execution, Chetak delivered its highest quarterly numbers of nearly 40,000 units, with significant share gain, you know, moved from 5% same time last year to 13% as it currently stands during this time. To put this in perspective, this time's quarterly number of about 40,000 Chetak was more than the electric scooters that we sold in all of FY 2023, in all of financial year 2023. A testament to the steady progress that we've made over the last year on electric mobility.
The three-wheeler industry saw modest growth compared to the previous quarters, with the e-auto, as we see it, the L5, as the industry balance grows. Contribution to the industry now at beyond 10%, of which the total three-wheeler industry for, for the first time. Here again, we've sustained the stepped up sales trajectory of over 100,000 units, for the third successful time, while expanding volume, market share, and network presence on the electric front. As for exports, the macroeconomic challenges persist across a range of our key countries, with the Red Sea crisis, issue, disrupting lead times and sharply inflating container freight rates. The industry continues to remain about 20%-25% below its peak of, of the FY 2022 year, when, when the world was flush with liquidity.
As for us, volume was flattish compared to the last quarter, but up 20% against the low that we had same time last year. That was the lowest that the exports business had gone to, and therefore, on that low base, we've registered a 20% increase in volume, this quarter compared to that year, that quarter of the last year. The approximate INR 416 million of revenue that we've had on exports therefore grew double digits and was further benefit from better realization and a richer mix, notably more sports and premium motorcycles and commercial vehicles. On commodities, the overall basket, I'd say, is by and large, neutral. Steel, aluminum, lead and rubber were about flattish.
Zinc and ABS saw some tightness, whereas the noble metals portfolio across all three, rhodium, platinum and palladium, and nickel, were relatively soft. So therefore, on balance in net terms, net overall terms, I'd say the Q4 compared to the Q3 was flat from both a cost and therefore a resulting pricing perspective. As for currency, it was steady and largely range-bound, with the realization coming in at INR 83 to $1 this time around, compared to INR 83.2 in the last quarter and INR 81.5 same time last year.
So bringing all of this together, the quarter closed with revenues of, you know, around INR 11,500 crores, delivering a substantial 29% year-on-year increase. Within this, the domestic business registered its eighth successive quarter of double-digit growth, while exports this time around also reported double-digit growth on a soft comparator in the base period. This overall growth was led by the robust 24% increase in volumes and further aided by a richer mix of premium motorcycles and more commercial vehicles across both domestic and export markets, as well as by a larger number of higher priced Chetaks. As for currency and pricing, they net off each other to be flattish for the quarter compared to same time last year.
Additionally, our spares business continued to grow bigger and bigger with each passing quarter, generating peak sales that crossed INR 1,300 crore this quarter. EBITDA came in at INR 2,307 crore, a very strong growth of 34% year-on-year, with the enterprise margin holding steady at 20% level. Compared to the same period last year, margin was up 80 basis points, largely led by better realization on operating leverage, which was partially offset by the investments that we have continued to make to competitively grow our electric scooters business, which, as you would have made out, was up 4x this quarter compared to the same time last year. Sequentially, we are holding on to margin share, and that is quite notable. The favorable mix offset the operating deleverage since the last quarter was the largest seasonal quarter.
But importantly, cost savings on electric vehicles contained the incremental drag arising from a higher volume. We've been talking to you about a fair amount of work that has been in the, you know, in the pipeline on cost rationalizing and, and driving the economics of our electric scooters business, and that is now coming to fruition. And in many ways, the cost savings that we have seen in this quarter has contained the incremental drag arising from higher volumes. Finally, we reported profit after tax of INR 1,936 crore, which was up a significant 35% year-on-year. As we end the quarter, I must say that it's been yet another solid show, and we are quite pleased at how we are dynamically managing the business, both for a competitive top line as well as for a sustained bottom line.
Coming to annual, let me spend a couple of minutes to wrap up the year. You know, and this is detailed in our press release, that I'm hoping most of you have now had the chance to see. It's been a record year of performance. We have achieved new milestones across all financial metrics. Revenue, EBITDA, PAT, cash flow, and capital productivity ratios of ROCE and ROIC. They have been at their highest ever. Our revenue at nearly INR 45,000 crore was up 23%, and this is notwithstanding the sluggish volumes arising out of the macroeconomic challenges across key export markets. And just where I want to emphasize the inherent resilience in our business model, where we have sizable businesses in both domestic and export that can make up for each other when one goes through rough weather.
The fact that we have registered our biggest ever year, adding over INR 8,000 crore of revenue, with only domestic coming to the growth party, reflects that resilience in action. On domestic, pretty much every business, motorcycles, KTM, commercial vehicles and Chetak, registered their lifetime high revenue and delivered share gain, every single one. In motorcycles, we emerged on a full year basis as the largest 125 cc player. We remain, remained decisively the largest three-wheeler player and rose to the third largest electric scooter player in the latter part of the year. This should give you a sense of the business firing on all counts. EBITDA at nearly INR 9,000 crore, was up 35% year-on-year on the back of very solid margin expansion of 180 basis points.
At a full year margin of 19.7%, we have now added almost 400 basis points of margin in the last two years. But what is more noteworthy is that during this time, we have dynamically managed the business to both invest substantially behind the profit dilutive electric scooters business for their competitive growth and scale-up, while continuing to expand the overall enterprise margin substantially, both being done in tandem. We closed the year with profit after tax at a new high of about INR 7,500 crore. That was up a strong 33%. The emphasis on cash generation and high cash conversion, which is essentially profit to net cash, saw INR 6,600 crore of free cash flow being added during the year.
This was again at an all-time high and up 40% over the previous year. This was after spending in the whereabouts of about INR 700-INR 800 crore of growth CapEx, that was primarily and strategically directed towards enhancing our capacity and capabilities in electric two-wheelers, electric three-wheelers and premium motorcycles. Our balance sheet continues to remain very strong, with the year-end net surplus funds at over INR 16,000 crore, and this is even after a sizable payout to shareholders, which between the dividend in July and the recently concluded buyback, was of an order of nearly INR 9,000 crore.
This healthy balance sheet provides the fuel for sufficient and competitive growth investments for the business, including funding the equity capitalization needs for our new financing subsidiary, Bajaj Auto Credit Limited, for which many of you may have picked up, that the board today has approved a further capital infusion of INR 2,250 crores in a phased manner, in addition to the INR 600 crores that was committed earlier as part of the larger funding plan as this business scales up its presence across the country in the course of this year. Finally, the board earlier today recommended a final dividend of INR 80 per share.
This, along with the share buyback that we, we just concluded this last month, will add up to almost INR 7,200 crore of cash that we are paying out to shareholders relating to FY 2024, which translates to an industry-leading payout of over 95% of our profit after tax. I'm sure you recognize that such heavy returns to shareholders underscores our commitment to delivering value to our shareholders and reflects, importantly, our confidence in the company's financial performance. On that note, let me hand the session back to Anand, and we'd be happy to take your questions.
Thank you, Dinesh. With this, we can open the questions, open the forum for the Q&As.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Binay Singh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, team. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. I have two questions, one on EV and one on Egypt. Firstly, on EV, could you talk a little bit about what is the financial headwind from electric two-wheelers in March quarter? And how do you see that playing out in financial year 2025? And when can we expect, PLI, sort of, incentive for Bajaj? So that is my first question.
Financial head... Well, are you meaning the headwind generated by the reduction in subsidy? Because I could not understand-
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay.
So, yeah. So generally, we know that electric vehicle margins are lower than your blended margin. Also, in the March quarter, we saw a lot of sales promotion, incentives and all being given by players. So if anything you would want to call out in terms of the margin headwind that is coming in from the electric two-wheeler business.
Yeah. So, Binay, you know, three questions to respond to. I think first, let's get the simpler one out of the way. On PLI, we have now happy to report back that we have now received the PLI certificates for all five of our electric three-wheeler models, and very recently for both our Chetak cars out on road, right? So we have the PLI certification from the testing agency in the bank as we speak, and therefore eligible going forward. The second is in the transition. There is a transitional impact between FAME and EMPS because you're aware the regulation prohibits subsidy of the FAME regime in EMPS.
And so therefore, given the spread of inventory across the country, there was likely to be some inventory that spilled over from the FAME regime into the EMPS phase, which is April 1 . At a company level, between our electric two-wheelers and our electric three-wheelers, that number was contained to a tad under 7,500 units between electric two-wheelers and electric three-wheelers. If you had to just cash that up for the subsidy impact, that would be a little under INR 20 crore, which is fundamentally the subsidy component in the FAME regime that will not be available in the EMPS regime. That's the second.
The third, look, I think, you know, if you've traced our margin evolution over a period of time over the last two years, you know, as Chetak has progressively scaled up from 3,000 units a month to almost, you know, between 12,000-14,000 units a month sustainably, you've still seen us continue to grow margin. You've seen us continue to grow enterprise margin. The 400 basis points of EBITDA margin improvement that we've done from what was nearly 16% all the way up to 20% has come on the back of scaling up Chetak. And I think we've weathered significant cost headwinds then, because, of course, lithium ion pricing being high, early stages of design not being optimized, so lots of the tech and battery not being optimized.
But I think there's a fair amount of work that is currently underway, which is bearing fruition, and that's the reason why I called it out in the quarter as I spoke, that as we moved up volume between the last quarter and the current quarter to a historic high of 40,000 units, we've not seen an incremental drag coming out of Chetak, because by selling more Chetaks, that incremental drag has been contained by the benefit of cost savings, which has now started to show up, you know, arising out of all the R&D work that is done.
The message I want to leave with you is that we continue to dynamically manage margin across the portfolio, as we have done for the last two years, to continue to scale up Chetak, and grow it competitively, while looking to hold margin at the levels at where we currently are. That is our intention, as we've done it for the last two years.
Thanks for that, Dinesh, and good to know about the PLI bit also. Second is on Egypt. You know, earlier I recall, Egypt used to be a key market for three-wheelers for Bajaj. Company had a very strong distribution and spares services. The brand was well known. Could you remind us how big was Egypt three-wheeler export run rate? And, could you, given the fact that Bajaj brand is known in that market, aspire for some similar kind of run rate?
... You know, we, our best year was like 6,000 units per month, but it had also gone up to peak levels of 9,000 units for a few months. We have 500,000 three-wheelers running on the streets of Egypt. Through this period, when the, exports got banned and our last one was in April 2022, we have maintained largely our, service network, our stores network on the basis of motorcycles and some very, very good effort by, our partners, over there. So it's, very well, Bajaj, is a very, very strong brand, almost generic, and well, the intention of the government of Egypt is to progressively replace all three-wheelers with quadricycles. So, now, how long will it take? Will the country possess the capability to do so, et cetera?
We'll see how it goes. But it has decisively opened the door for last mile, three-wheel, four-wheel mobility for us in Egypt.
Great to hear that. Thanks, our team, and the best wishes for next year.
Thank you. Bye.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Amyn Pirani from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. I just want to follow up on the Egypt question. While the government has, you know, accepted the quadricycle as the vehicle for, you know, for imports, is the currency situation in Egypt as bad as, say, in Nigeria and Argentina, like you mentioned? Or, I'm just trying to understand how soon, you know, this can start, because one issue was the ban, but the other issue was also the currency.
Yeah, the currency situation is bad, but it is not as bad as Argentina or Nigeria. Particularly in the last few months, there has been an improvement in the availability of the currency because of the various aid packages which Egypt has been receiving. So, but you're right, and it's not like we can start pumping out as many goods as we want. It will be the limiting factor will be the availability of the currency. But having said that, we are exporting about 250 units immediately, within actually weeks of the approval, which required even you know, local localization set up by our partners in Egypt to come on the basis of that.
Understood. Understood. And, secondly, on the EV side, you know, now that, you know, this year we've seen a huge scale-up on the Chetak EV, and obviously, you know, you have also launched various models at different price points. Just trying to understand from a customer point of view, can you give a broad breakup as to, you know, whether most of your customers are coming in at a certain price point? Is price driving, you know, customer market share, or most people are coming at the premium end? If you can give us some flavor as to who the customer is, because we are seeing different approaches from different players. I just wanted to understand, you know, what the customer is actually really looking for.
Well, largely, I would say that the customer is looking for the reduction in the commuting transport bill of the family. That is the single most important factor which is driving the adoption of the EV. The Activa or the leading scooter at, whatever, INR 75,000, and with the differential in electric cost per kilometer versus petrol cost per kilometer, a customer gets the payback within 12 months if the product is, what? INR 15,000-INR 20,000 more expensive.
Yeah.
So it makes eminent sense. And having said that, there are always in a market some customers who will go for, you know, a very premium end premium end shopping. We have to see and take some lessons from the ICE scooter industry, which, as you know, is a very large industry-
Yeah.
and which is quite mature.
Yeah.
About 85% of whole scooter industry is concentrated in the price band of INR 75,000-INR 80,000.
Mm.
So you can see that, you know, this customer is largely, economy-led, and that is what, which is not to say... When it comes to electric, you know, the customers have a natural tendency to, expect digitization and-
Yeah.
- slightly more modern features, et cetera. It is a general expectation. But I would say the key driver is the reduction in the family's transport bill.
Okay, great. Thanks, thanks for this. I'll come back in the queue.
Thank you. We have the next question from the line of Gunjan Prithyani from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks, team, for taking my question. I have a, you know, just a follow-up on the EV side.
You mentioned that we expect the penetration to you know, to inch up despite subsidies going down. Quite interesting to hear that from you. So, you know, what is it that you're seeing really change in the marketplace? And how what are we thinking in terms of the portfolio expansion, capacity ramp up, as we get into the fiscal 2025?
Gunjan, like I said, the key reason is still the savings in the monthly commuting bill of a family. Despite the product being more expensive, the savings are. You know, for example, if a commuter, if a person or a family rides 40 km a day, for 25 days, they'll end up saving INR 1,500-INR 1,800 rupees, which translates to INR 18,000-INR 20,000 rupees per annum. And that is the sort of difference which is there between a good standard EV and ICE scooter. So I would say that this and, actually, there is a switch in the customer ever since the petrol cost INR 100.
This freedom of their budget from the rise and fall of the petrol prices has actually made the customer very, very open to adoption of EV. They may not adopt it because they may still feel scared about the range, they may still feel that, you know, oh, there is too much of a premium. But I cannot think of a customer of scooter who's considering the purchase of the scooter and is not considering EV. He may reject the option, but it has now become a very firmly in the consideration set of a scooter buyer. It's not like that in all classes of motorcycles. What I'm saying, that till the time this payback economics is in favor, the adoption of EVs will continue.
And the other subsidy point to this is that, to some extent, the prices have got the lower sell cost and giving the OEs a little bit more wiggle room to price it better. But largely, I would say, expectation is that the consumer wants EV, and it's just, we have to just see how much of a premium the consumer will pay based on the payback.
Hmm. And what are we doing on the portfolio side in terms of, you know, what price points, capacity, ramps, ramp-up, milestone, anything that you can sort of share?
We upgraded our range in Q4 with displays and TecPac offers, et cetera, which give much better services. As we go forward in this quarter, we will add another Chetak, perhaps two in the next few months to the portfolio, which will give us a larger play across the max segment. It will be better priced, and hopefully will give us far more traction. And as we go into medium term, I've mentioned that Chetak Technology Limited is focused on... You know, the market will also grow and will offer us opportunities of segmentation, and there is a very deep study going on to see how we can continually keep the product pipeline buzzing. So, immediately, of course, one and then another one. Medium term, lots of options are there.
Capacity is not an issue. We have flexible manufacturing capacity, and we can turn our plants very quickly towards Chetak from other lines. So that is really not a limiting factor for us.
Okay. And the second question, sir, I had was on the CNG side. Note, the proposition does sound very, very exciting, and, you know, you sort of put forward 60% is the market sizing, and within that we have, you know, 60% CNG distribution is what you put, you know, what you sort of spoke about. But there's also another apprehension with CNG that typically comes around safety. So, you know, what is it that we are, you know, when we are looking at the product launch now, if there's anything that you can share, you know, what, you know, what does the product hold and, you know, anything that you can, you know, give us, on the product specifications?
See, Gunjan, the safety thing is, actually, quite misinformed because, forget motorcycles, you know, we have been running CNG three-wheelers for years in many countries around the world. We have an 88% share in India, and we have got enormous expertise in this area. None of our customers have had this safe issue. Sometimes I feel it is deliberately propagated by people who don't have CNG option. I have not come across this issue even in four-wheelers, where people like Maruti and Tata have been running this, CNG-based vehicles for a long time. And if I go beyond this, there are many aftermarket fitments which are taking place. Now, customers are very familiar with CNG, the CNG concept, and they're very comfortable, and there is a very sound-
... CMVR regulation on safety and all other aspects. You know, testing protocols are there, and we have to pass through those, norms, which we have done. We have done previously for three-wheelers, and I'm sure the four-wheeler boys do it for theirs. So, it is really not, you know, a big concern yet. There may be some little bit of perception management, which we may have to do, but I think it is a little bit motivated. I don't think we have many customers who've got that issue. Otherwise, the aftermarket for CNG wouldn't be thriving.
Got it. That's good to hear. Thank you so much. I'll join back with you.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Chandramouli Muthiah from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good evening, and thank you for taking my questions. My first question is on the commodity costs. You had given us some clarity in the prepared remarks on the way commodity costs moved in the previous quarter. I think with some of the geopolitical tensions over the past three weeks, we have seen increases in certain metal prices. So I just want to understand how you are observing that, and if there's any, you know, forward commentary you'd like to share on the metal cost side.
Yes, Chandramouli, thanks for that question. You're right. You know, I think, even before the current challenges that we've seen on the geopolitical side, we were seeing a slight step up on the trend line for both, let me say, aluminum and copper. I'd say, on balance, for the rest of the commodity lines, it's about flattish, steels holding out. But yes, aluminum and copper have moved up. We need to wait and watch and see how some of the other inputs respond to what has been happening in the last couple of weeks. But those are two that we've caught up.
We've anticipated that in for the quarter, and we've taken slight pricing from the start of this quarter as well, to be able to cushion that impact across parts of the business. It's very marginal, but these are very early days to tell how the rest of the quarter might play out. But we've got our eyes set, but let me leave you with the broad saying, it's not across all lines. It's most notably on aluminum and copper.
Got it. That's helpful. And the second question is a follow-up on the comments you made on PLI product certification. I think a couple of your electric two-wheelers are now certified. So going forward, as the PLI incentives start to get paid out to you, is that an environment in which you would be profitable on the electric two-wheeler business? I just want to understand the profitability of the electric two-wheeler business, including PLI. I think a couple of quarters back, you had mentioned that including PLI incentives, the electric three-wheeler business could be almost as profitable as corporate margins. So just want to understand, including PLI incentives, how the electric two-wheeler business might play.
Yeah, Chandru. So to reinforce the point I made, we've got certified for all five models of our electric three-wheeler that's on road, and both the electric Chetaks that's on road at the moment. So we've got completeness of the portfolio on that. And of course, we will have to keep going through the motion each time we put out new models, as Rakesh just mentioned. So for Chetak, that's in the offing, we've obviously got work to start, and there is a lead time that has to be managed. With PLI, in the case of the electric two-wheeler, leads to a unit level profitability? The answer to that is no. Still some distance away.
I think, between the mix, it certainly helps address a large part of the drive, but I think, with work that is happening on cost rationalization and alternate sourcing, we're clearly bridging that gap. But, to your point, not as yet. We've not quite bridged the gap, even with the PLI in the bag. On the electric three-wheeler, I think we, we've said this, and to reinforce, with the PLI, we are definitely clearly as profitable as the ICE three-wheelers. You know, and that is something that we feel more change of position on that.
Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you very much, and all the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Aditya Jhawar from Investec. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi, thanks for the opportunity, and congrats on good set of numbers for the year as well as for the quarter. Just wanted to understand the thought process on, you know, splitting volumes of Triumph in domestic and overseas market, and in the last quarter, 70% of the production was exported. So is there a minimum commitment that we have given to Triumph U.K.? And what would be this number, you know, going ahead of export as a percentage of total production?
No, Aditya, we are not, there is no commitment. I think, there is a division of territories. Largely, overseas markets are managed by Triumph, except for Indian subcontinent, and there are a few markets here and there, where Bajaj manages the Triumph brand. And, the exports was driven, the timing of the exports was driven by a launch calendar, which Triumph, as you can imagine, that they had a quite a complex situation of launching across 50 countries, 57 countries, et cetera. And, you know, homologation work to be done, et cetera. So it was driven more by that. And as we have got into that mode, our first thing is to, of course, fill the pipeline because of the long lead time, and then after that, we'll see how the details go.
The further development of Triumph business will take on both fronts-
... what we call the Bajaj territories, which are largely India and the subcontinent, and one or two markets here and there, and the Triumph territories. We will try to maximize the business in both. We are monitoring the territories like that. We exchange information monthly basis.
I see. That, that's very helpful. Secondly-
We've also unlocked capacity to about 10,000 units per month in the H1. And it is largely, as you know, the Bajaj Auto capacities have the flexibility that the vendor ecosystem needs to ramp it up. So we are gradually ramping that up also.
That's very good to hear. My second question is that, you know, based on, you know, the current, you know, rollout of Triumph in few cities and select dealership, what are, what are your thoughts on early responses? What are the customer profile? What are the market share that you are, you know, seeking in some of the pockets that the product or the distribution is launched? Or wherever there is an optimal distribution present, and is there any order backlog that you would like to share? Just early response on the product feedback, you know, and market share in individual pockets.
Yes. We, of course, got very detailed feedback. The real effort actually, and it is very important for people to understand this, is that there is a monolithic segment in this 350 cc, 400 cc, which is all about, largely about, you know, a very classic style and, you know, sort of mediocre performance. There is another segment internationally, which has got you know, a fair amount of recognition, which is a modern classic. A modern classic has five elements of a classic, but it combines performance, handling and all that at a much, much superior level. Our approach was to not do a me-too product when we are attacking this segment, but to build a modern classic subsegment.
And that is what the first offerings are doing with the Speed 400 and the Scrambler 400 X. Of course, as things go forward, it is not—I'm not saying that we not have a pure classic in our arsenal. We will have that. Therefore, the task before the teams is to not just build the network, but also to develop the brand and start to own the concept of a modern classic. In some of the markets where this concept, for example, you know, I would put some markets in the South, where the customer is more mature and sensitive to the modern classic proposition. We have seen market shares in some months go even up to 20%. Right?
And in some markets, let's say in some parts of the North, for example, the customer is very, very staunch about pure classic, and there we have seen the market share are taking time to develop. So, I would say that... And by the way, I'll just, just knock off that sub-question. We don't have any pending orders or anything. But now onwards, based on both network and the brand development, we will see a month- on- month- on- month improvement in domestic sales. So we are taking it as a, I, I mean, it's a whole portfolio which will be built, which will offer multiple modern classics and some pure classic bikes over a period of time to really, you know, completely win it.
So this is not about one product, just taking one product and running with it and thinking that with one product we will suddenly gain leadership on the basis of opening new stores. No. It is, you know, for example, in the 150 cc to 250 cc segment, we have some 15 products, 15 models of Pulsar from 125 cc to 250 cc. And combined, they cover all the subsegments of the 150 cc to 200 cc to the 250 cc segment. And it's a similar approach which we are, which we have undertaken.
Thanks a lot for the elaborate answer. That's it from me. All the best.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Raghunandan NL from Nuvama Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.
Congratulations, sir, on strong results, and thanks for the comprehensive opening remarks. Sir, firstly, financing business has been added to the segmental data. Can you indicate the focus areas, ramp-up targets, any color you can indicate, for next year? And also, if you can share the financing ratio for last quarter, Q4.
So we have started to build the book from first of January, starting with some territories, where we are, whichever territories we are entering, we are financing all the group, which is two-wheeler, three-wheeler, KTM, et cetera. And we stand today at a coverage of about 35%, and progressively we will, during the course of the year, increase it to 100%. There are times, you know, whether it is elections or whether it's peak season, where we may have to sort of hold the rollout, and we'll see based on, you know, operational how the operations are going. The idea is to, you know, conclude the year with 100% coverage of the country.
Raghun, your question on what was the financing penetration in motorcycles, that's about 75% comparable to last quarter, and in three-wheelers it's about 90%.
Got it, sir. And the share of Bajaj Finance would be around 43%-44%?
Sir, it's about 70%. Bajaj Finance is almost 70% in motorcycles and three-wheeler. So 70% of 70% in two-wheelers.
Got it, sir. So secondly, on the electric three-wheeler space, you indicated 30% market share in cities where you're present. Can you indicate the volume in Q4? And also, how do you see the, you know, general acceptance for the product and any thoughts of how fast you are seeing the penetration expand?
I know that the March number was 3,400 units. We will email the Q4 number for you. The March was a bit overstated because, as you know, a lot of the advancement took place from April into March due to the 10% reduction due to the cessation of the FAME II subsidy. So, you know, in markets where we have spent six months, we find that we are reaching about 60%, 50% market share rather quickly, despite incumbents being there for a while. And in markets where we are present for about 3 months, you will remember that this whole journey has started for us largely in August only.
So but whenever we have entered the market, like for three months, then we see that we can start achieving about 20% market share. The heartening thing which we find is those e-ricks, because there is a. You know, if I just take three-wheeled mobility, and for a minute forget about autos, and I take three-wheeled mobility, e-ricks, which are a cheaper option, are almost half of this industry. But when we are. So and there are large parts of North and Central and East, which got almost complete domination by e-ricks. But even in those markets, when we have entered with the e-auto, it's early days, but we find that people on the first, middle of life of the e-ricks or end of life, are very attracted towards the option of e-auto.
So that's why I said it presents a new opportunity for us, because we still can't sell ICE three-wheelers in these markets because there are no permits for ICE three-wheelers in half of the country. And therefore, we are going to be pushing hard on on e-autos and, of course, e-cargo. And by the way, the Q4 number was about 6,500 units.
Thank you, sir. Your thoughts on over the next 3-5 years, the e-auto penetration, how do you expect that to go for the industry?
I think the e-auto will progressively really cannibalize the e-ricks. It will destroy the petrol and diesel, but the jury is still out for CNG because of two reasons. One is that the differential with CNG, particularly when we take the CapEx cost into consideration, the final, the cost per kilometer is not significantly different. CNG will move in some manner, but, you know, there is a familiarity thing, there is a there is no charging time, there is an availability thing which is more in favor of CNG, and because it is only about 10%-12% more expensive to run per kilometer than electric, there are still people who remain loyal to CNG. So I feel that e-ricks, which are already into E, it's just a matter of people upgrading.
I feel that all the other formats, the petrol, diesel, et cetera, the migration will take place. So in the beginning, that is where the... And, you know, the government is start putting a lot of heft behind the expansion of the CNG network. So over the medium term, I think both CNG and EV will coexist.
Thank you, sir, for the detailed answer. All the best to you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Pramod Kumar from UBS. Please go ahead.
... Yeah, thanks a lot for the opportunity, and congratulations on the excellent set of numbers. My first question, Rakesh and Dinesh, is regarding the margin performance last year. We had a very strong margin performance on top of a very strong ASP expansion and volume growth. Out of the 230 basis points margin expansion over this year, the EBITDA level, if you can just help us understand the split, how much of that came from commodity and how much was mix and how much was operating leverage? Now and, and, and how do you see these elements, particularly mix and mix going forward in FY 2025? That would be my first question.
You want to go ahead with both your questions, and we'll answer both the other ones.
Yeah, sure. The second one is on Qute. I think it's an interesting development that you are exploring Egypt now, and start off export there. But just wanted to add a question on the fundamentals of the product, because we've been having this product for the last many years now, and we export around 4,000 odd units annually to various countries. So, given that there is a new opportunity emerging in Egypt for quadricycles, is there—will there be more efforts put on the product side? Because the product was kind of previewed in 2020, or went to market in 2016. So what are the product plans there? Because it could also become an interesting opportunity in the Indian market as well, as future regulations evolve on the safety side.
What is your thinking on the entire Qute platform, going forward?
Yeah, we are investing behind the Qute platform. You know, when the BS4, BS6 transition took place, there was such a lot of work, which was there in our R&D, that we did prioritize Qute, purely because of the volumes, et cetera. And, therefore, by the time we got BS6, it is a long time had lapsed. But we are looking at an upgrade which will provide the customer with an air-conditioned Qute. And we are already now got a CNG Qute, and we will be working on an electric Qute as well. So the portfolio is being invested in more.
So Pramod, I'm going to take your question on how the margin has panned out. So we've ended the year with 180 basis points of net margin improvement. Look, the improvements have come in from all three levers, which is price versus cost. There is the impact of the dollar realization, which has been better, and clearly operating leverage by virtue of a larger revenue pool that we have. All three have contributed sizably to make up for the drag that we've had on Chetak. I don't want to go into the specifics of those numbers because we clearly manage these lines dynamically.
Mm-hmm.
But, suffice it to say that there's no single lever. It's all three: price versus cost, operating leverage, and favorable mix on the ICE portfolio, which is offset, and the dollar realization, which has offset the impact of growing the Chetak portfolio.
Excellent. One clarification, did we call it, or did we comment on the three-wheeler growth prospects for the industry level? Because we've had a spectacular year, 54% growth, industry has grown by 45%, on the full year basis. So how do you see this and, and sitting on a new record? So how do you... How should one look at growth from a FY 2025 perspective on this, on this base?
Yeah, I had mentioned that. What I said was that, with recovery complete in most of the regions, now we will see organic growth from here. We will not see a rocketing 40%, 50% growth, but probably, single digits in the ICE side. But there is a lot of growth prospects, particularly for us, as we scale up three-wheeler auto, e-auto, in the restricted markets of the country, which is almost, you know, 15% of a huge market.
Excellent. Excellent. Thanks a lot, both of you, and best of luck. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arvind Sharma from Citi. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hello. Good evening, sir. Thanks for taking my question. First question on the EVs business, a little basic, but, what are the costs and revenues are reflected in the standalone results? You know, just to better understand the relationship between Chetak and Bajaj, because the volumes also differ between Bajaj and Bajaj plus Chetak. So how are the EV revenues reflected in the standalone numbers? That would be the first question.
Thanks, Arvind. Simply put, all of Chetak is recorded in Bajaj Auto itself at the moment.
All right. It's as good as selling via Bajaj Auto. The volume should be same.
Absolutely. It's not as good. We are selling Chetak through Bajaj Auto at the moment.
Got it, sir. And with-
The numbers, so the numbers are comparable and reflect the entire position of the business between both the ICE business and the EV business.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much. The second question, you did allude to the upcoming model launches, especially in Pulsar. If you could just give some more clarity in terms of timelines, the new upcoming Pulsar launches, sir?
Well, we just launched the new 250s earlier in this month, and we are next month going to be launching the biggest Pulsar ever. And then, going forward, we will be addressing with some new products the 125 cc and the 155 cc segment. So, there will be a lot of action in the H1 of next year.
Got it, sir.
Like I said, next month also, it will continue in the H1.
Got it, sir. Thank you so much for the response, sir. That's all from my side. Thank you.
... Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amyn Pirani from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi. Thanks for the opportunity again. My question was on your comment on the two-wheeler or the Chetak unit profitability. So since you mentioned that even after PLI, the Chetak would not be, you know, profitable on a unit level. So just trying to understand, you know, so what is the main constraint then? Is it basically scale, or is it because you have tried to differentiate it and, you know, launch it through a separate channel, which, you know, adds some extra costs? So how should we think about, you know, say, three, four, five years down the line? Should this profitability, you know, move?
No, it's not. It's not really network expansion, which is adding to it. And, you know, from a large perspective, you know that it isn't fixed cost. Of course, there will be leverage benefits that will help economics as volumes grow. But I think the most fundamental piece is on price, and where the price of the market has moved, as indeed our own pricing. And clearly, that price reduction or price coming off to try and make it more affordable.
Mm.
is, let me say, outrunning the work that is happening on cost reduction.
Okay.
The cost reduction effort is currently underway. It's longer lead, given clearly the technology that is at play. In the meantime, pricing as a table, if you just compare product pricing, over the last four quarters-
Yeah.
You will see how product pricing has come off. That is essentially front running the work that is happening on cost reduction, which should play out over a period of time.
Understood.
Even with the PLI, it bridges the gap, but it doesn't cover it entirely.
Understood. So assuming that the prices don't move from here on, your cost reduction could continue, and then there will be a point in time, maybe four, five, six quarters down the line, where you could actually reach there. Is that a fair way to think about it?
It will get better. I mean, you're absolutely right, Dinesh. That's the way we are thinking about it as well, because we are already starting to see some benefit of cost reduction coming, which is the point I made in my commentary.
Right.
That despite the fact that across two quarters we had significantly higher Chetaks.
Mm.
Incrementally, it did not add to a drag because the benefit of the cost reduction offsets that drag, on makes. But you're right, as cost reduction benefits start to play out over a period of time, unit level profitability should only get better, assuming, and the big assumption-
Mm, yeah.
is that the price point remains where it is.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Thanks. Thanks for the clarification.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pramod Amthe from InCred Equities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. The finance, so if I heard you right, the penetration of the business into the Bajaj Auto two-wheeler is already 70%. Is that fair?
That's right, Pramod. We've said that the financing penetration for two-wheelers is 75%.
No, no. I was asking the finance arm. The contribution of finance arm to the Bajaj volume is 75%. Is that understanding right?
We said the penetration of Bajaj Finance Limited. That is what the Bajaj Auto's captive finance company is called BACL, Bajaj Auto Credit.
Correct.
As you know, Bajaj Finance Limited is part of the group and has been financing our vehicles. They are at about 70% market share of retail financing of two-wheelers.
Okay.
And-
Sorry. Thanks. The second related question is, the infusion looks pretty large by any standards, considering the other captive arms. So what's the plan of consuming this amount, and what market segments you plan to target in domestic or any export opportunity, export markets to be tapped in?
So, Pramod, you know, the last little garbled, but I, I just be sure that we've, we've answered your question. The approval that we've got to infuse capital of INR 2,250 crore at the moment will happen in a phased manner as Bajaj Auto Credit starts to build its business across the country and finance the Bajaj Auto Group vehicles for both two-wheelers and three-wheelers. Recognize that this captive financing arm will do business only in India. There isn't an export leg to it. And so the capital infusion that we've signed up and the board has approved is essentially to happen over a phased period of time, as would be typical of any other auto financing entity, as it builds up the book across the country, in the course of the financial year. So it's a phased infusion.
It doesn't happen once, but it happens over a period of time as the new capital financing entity, Bajaj Auto Credit, as you just heard from Rakesh, rolls out across the country.
Sure. Thanks for the detailed explanation. The second question is regards to the EV business. Considering the technology innovation which Bajaj enjoys, like, for example, CNG or the E-cars, how do you look at the ESP technology for two-wheelers? And do you see that as a technology advantage you can bring on to the consumer, might be in a couple of quarters down the line? Any thoughts on the same?
Oh, absolutely. We feel that technology is a very big lever for us to work. And, I mean, you would have seen evidence of that, whether it is adaptation of ABS and 100 cc bikes, or for that matter, launching the first CNG-based bike. In fact, our belief in this lever is so strong that I mentioned that we are orienting Chetak Technology Limited to become the fountainhead of creation for the Bajaj Auto, not just for EV, but also for non-EV products. So they will be the creators, and they will have a responsibility to master cutting-edge technologies and bring them to bear. That is their singular mission going forward.