GURGAON, India (March 11, 2016) — Apollo Tyres Ltd. is branching into the two-wheeler tire segment with the launch of the Apollo Acti series for bikes and scooters, covering nearly 85 percent of the Indian replacement market for such tires.
The launch of the Acti line follows a two-year research and development project to produce tires suited to India's “diverse road conditions,” according to Neeraj Kanwar, vice chairman/managing director of Apollo Tyres.
Apollo is sourcing the tires initially from another Indian tire maker that Apollo declined to identify. The company expects demand of about 120,000 tires a month initially, with growth quadrupling to 500,000 tires a month in about two years.
Apollo cites projected annual demand growth of 8.5 percent in India for two-wheeler tires as central to its decision to enter the segment. There are an estimated 120 million two-wheelers operating in India.