Mumbai: Come early 2014 Bajaj Auto will be the first Indian automobile company whose made in India motorcycle will burn rubber in the US.
The Indian motorcycle giant will maufacture a street bike for its partner KTM AG, the Austrian bike maker in which it has a over 47 stake for the US. KTM till now has been selling only off-road bikes in this market.
These, stylish, high performance and race-oriented KTM Duke 390s would be made in Chakan, Pune plant owned by Bajaj Auto.
Stefan Pierer, chief executive, KTM-Sportmotorcycle AG, in an interview to Business Standard says, “It is a strategic decision together with Bajaj to go for sporty, stylish motorcycles even for the saturated markets because cars have become too expensive. We are entering the street bike segment in the US for the first time and beginning next year the Duke 390 built in India by Bajaj will be sold in the US market.”
The US is the world’s biggest market for high-end super bikes (above 990cc). However, due to the on-going financial crises consumers are downtrading to suit themselves with more affordable, efficient and easy-on-pocket products.
The Duke 390, which prior to the US will be launched in Europe by the middle of this year followed by India, is the result of the joint development program by engineers of Bajaj and KTM.
The concept of the Duke 390 was developed in Austria but everything else including design and development to the final product was done in India by Bajaj Auto.
Bajaj Auto which owns stake in KTM has successfully launched two models – Duke 200 and Duke 125 – built and sold in India and exported to Europe and other markets.
These small displacement street bikes, which are very peppy by character are ideal for urban commuting especially in saturated markets such as the US and Europe with increasing demand, adds Pierer. So far no Indian company has been able to set foot in the US automotive market which is widely considered to be the most toughest market.
“What we are talking about is a very powerful (40-44bhp) yet affordable bike, 138kg, so its real powerful agile bike and based of the target price of around Euro 5,000, including VAT, we think it could be a very big success”, added Pierer.
Riding high on such India-made smaller bikes KTM achieved its set target of dethroning German giant BMW last year to become Europe’s largest bike maker with sales of 107,000 as against BMW’s 106,000 units.
The plan forward is to rapidly ramp up production from India and simultaneously hunt for newer markets in ASEAN region and in the Latin American markets.
In some markets of Asia, Bajaj Auto has a strong network of its own while in other areas it taps into resources of its other partner Kawasaki. Similarly the Pune-based India’s second biggest bike producer has a strong infrastructure in the Latin American areas.
Pierer expects to do a multi-fold increase in production from Chakan to at least 100,000 units per year from 17,000 units as of last year, in the next five years. This will also be exactly half of what KTM is expected to produce globally by that time.
“In all we will produce 200,000 in five years of which 100,000 will come from India. We expect 10,000 units sales from the Duke 390 from Europe and the US. India and other regions will be additional”, added Pierer.
For India KTM has committed a new model launch every six months. While the Duke 390 is slated to hit Bajaj-appointed KTM showrooms later this year, a full faired version of the existing Duke 200 and later a full faired version of the Duke 390 will also come in
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