Two words, “Atlas” and “innovation,” these two words are like oil and water; they never match with each other. It’s because, for the past 40 years, Atlas hasn’t dared to do literally any innovation. CG125, Pridor, and CD70 are the best examples of how lazy Atlas is in terms of innovation; we think that Atlas doesn’t even have an R&D department in their company.
A few days ago, Atlas introduced the 2025 model of CG125, and all they did was make some sticker changes, which were even copied from the previous 2021 model. They didn’t dare to make a single change in the new model; it’s literally the same motorcycle that’s been around since 2013, based on 1980s CG architecture, just with new stickers. Although they did introduce some 77 new changes in the 2023 model, the main body and platform are still the same as the 80s with no additional feature add-on.
Here’s a breakdown of why Atlas is stuck in 1980s technology:
Laziness of Atlas
Atlas just doesn’t want to! Yes, it’s clear that Atlas is the biggest manipulator in the market; they’ve manipulated the market so that even if this brand doesn’t innovate, it’ll keep working, and people will keep buying it. They just don’t want to introduce any new technology in their CD and CG, “if it’s working, don’t touch it.” Their business model works on this quote.
No Competition
There’s no other motorcycle brand that offers a head-to-head competition to Atlas. Yamaha and Suzuki are considered upper-budget brands and have nothing to offer compared to CG and CD. Although there are some Chinese options like Road Prince and United, but these Chinese doesn’t spend much on their customer experience like Atlas do. Therefore, Atlas is a simply lone wolf in the market.
No competition means that customers have no choice but to buy 80s CG and CD, and hence, no innovation is required. And that’s how Atlas has kept its monopoly in the market.
Heavy Spending on Marketing and PRs
If you notice, Atlas spends a lot of money on promotions, online and offline marketing, and PRs. For example, this brand even does proper advertising through its delivery trucks.
They strategically print Honda everywhere on their dealerships, even like 2-3 billboards on a single store so people can spot that this is Atlas Honda dealership from 2 miles away. Just visit any 2-3 dealerhsips, they all have same design and you’ll see Honda logo’s everywhere on the store front.
Moreover, their billboards are properly lit at night, and even the dealership shutters have ‘Atlas Honda’ prominently displayed, with proper lighting so people can clearly see it’s an Atlas Honda store at night. They also invest good money in digital advertising on Google Ads.
These are just some ways to attract the audience.
No Market Demand
When people are willing to pay Rs.20,000 “ON” on the existing CG125, why do you expect Atlas to do innovations? The invoice price of CG is 230K PKR, and people are willing to buy this 80’s CG for 250K PKR, 20K more than it’s invoice price. Why would a business want to touch it’s gold laying hen? These two old-school bikes are a major source of earnings for Atlas and probably the main player of their brand.
The reason lies in our public as well. As long as people are buying 1980s motorcycles and don’t raise resistance against them, the brand has no reason to redesign or introduce innovation. If people were to demand modern features, Atlas will spend some money on R&D to add new features, but currently, there’s no demand by our public and they seem to be happy with using 80’s bike, even willing to spend more than the invoice price on it.
