Honda Unicorn launched for just 110,000 Rupees Only!
While we Pakistanis are only getting new colors and new stickers in the name of new variants and innovation, there are some places on earth where these Japanese Motorcycle manufacturing companies are also working hard. Take the example of Honda for instance. In Pakistan, Atlas Honda has recently launched a Blue Color in its Honda CB150F with a price tag of almost 5 lac rupees. However, in India, Honda Unicorn launched for just 110,000 rupees only! Why so much difference, let’s dig deep to find it out!
First of all, the most major difference is market competition. Unlike Pakistan where Honda leads the market, the Indian motorcycling market is very competitive. Local Indian manufacturers like Bajaj, TVS, and Hero are very competitive with the features and pricing they offer against Japanese manufacturers. If we observe the Indian motorcycle market, the locally made motorcycles are at par with their Japanese counterparts.
The second difference is the localization of the product. In the previous years (pre-1990) the Indian automobile scene was almost dead. They had only local products to be used like the Padmani Ambassador car and Bajaj Chetak while Pakistan was importing the latest cars and motorcycles from Japan. While we were enjoying the latest products, they were establishing their industry slowly and steadily. Little did we know, they were sharing technologies and were developing their vehicles locally. Utilizing local resources, providing jobs to local people, and saving in terms of foreign reserves.
The third difference is having a strict authority who regularized the vehicles and checked them. Today Pakistan is using euro 2 technology in its motorcycles while India is using BS6-compliant products. Their motorcycles are much safer and cleaner than ours. Also, they are much more fuel efficient as compared to our motorcycles too.
All in all, we are risk-averse people. None of us wants to change so bad that we do something about it. We are happily riding our 70cc knockoffs because if it breaks down, we will get cheap parts. If it needs to be worked on, labor will be cheap and readily available. we need to move on and step out of our comfort (resale value) zone!
