'Moving up in life', reads the sales blurb of the Hero Honda Ambition. OVERDRIVE assesses whether the 133cc Ambition does signify a step up (or down) the ladder.

Here's a motorcycle conceived by the marketing department for the marketing department. And from a purely marketing perspective, the Ambition does represent a master stroke, promising to bridge the gap between power and Fuel Efficiency and offer what Hero Honda believes the Indian customer wants.

Having achieved the distinction of being the largest individual two-wheeler company in the world, it is but natural that Hero Honda would want to maintain their pre-eminence in the motorcycle segment. To achieve this HHML does need to come up with a new money spinner since the Splendor/Passion duo has stopped setting sales charts afire for quite some time and the CBZ isn't lighting too many fires either. While the Hero Honda bikes continue to take a beating, TVS keeps ramping up production of the Victor, while the Bajaj Pulsar twins continue to set sales records, not to mention the headaches caused by new entrant in the market, the LML Freedom and the soon to be launched Yamaha Libero.

The solution to Hero Honda's problems then is the Ambition, an attempt to bridge the gap in her portfolio between the 97.2cc Splendor/Passion at the lower end and the 156cc CBZ at the upper end of the segment. The press release for the Ambition mentions that 'the new motorcycle will be targeted at people aspiring to move up in life'. More to the point, the bike is targeted at Splendor/Passion customers wishing to move further up the ladder, but are turned off by the CBZ's price and Fuel Efficiency or lack thereof. And it must be mentioned that even if a small proportion of these customers switch to the Ambition, Hero Honda will have a winner on its hands.