Swaraj Baggonkar Moneycontrol News
Motoroyale, the premium bike division of the Pune-based Kinetic group, on October 11 launched seven bikes in the premium and luxury range with prices starting at Rs 3.37 lakh (ex-showroom)
The company also announced tie-ups with three companies — SWM, FB Mondial and Hyosung — taking the total count to five. Motoroyale will now retail bikes from the Norton, SWM, MV Agusta, FB Mondial and Hyosung stables.
Motoroyale in betting on Indian consumer's appetite with street nakeds, cruisers, hipsters, off-roaders, tourers and other bike categories. “We want to offer all the exotic and aspirational two-wheeler brands under one roof where buyers can buy from a range starting at 250cc going up to 1000cc. We have seen tremendous demand for these premium bikes with MV Agusta brand of bikes alone clocking 237 in sales,” Ajinkya Firodia, managing director, Motoroyale, told Moneycontrol.
The bikes will have engines ranging from 250cc to 1000cc from and will be sold through a limited dealership network spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Thane, Cochin and Chennai.
While some of the MV Agusta bikes have been on sale since the past two years in India, a new addition was made today. The 800cc engine, 140hp Brutale 800RR was launched at Rs 18.99 lakh.
Limited edition Commando and Dominator
Two limited edition bikes from the 117-year old British brand Norton — Commando and Dominator — will also make way to the showrooms. Priced at Rs 20.99 lakh for the Commando and Rs 23.7 lakh for the Dominator only 37 units of these will be sold in India.
In a first for India, these bikes, assembled locally after being imported from the UK, will have the names of their owners painted on them.
Bikes from two other Italian brands – SWM and FB Mondial – were also launched. The SWM SuperDual, an off-road, on-road motorcycle will come at Rs 6.8 lakh. The FB Mondial HPS 300, part of a new category of Hipster (mix of modern and retro) will come at Rs 3.37 lakh.
Hyosung Aquila 650 & GT 250R launch
Two other bikes from Hyosung – Aquila 650 and GT 250R will complete the range. The Aquila cruiser is priced at Rs 5.35 lakh while the GT 250 R is priced at Rs 3.38 lakh. A new budget cruiser under the brand Mirage powered by a 300cc engine will be added to the line up next year.
Hyosung was first introduced in India in 2003 by the now defunct company Kinetic Motors through the launch of a cruiser and a roadster model. Later Hyosung tied-up with Garware Auto before Garware was bought by DSK Motowheels.
Firodia also said that the company is setting up a new assembly factory in Supa in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra having an annual capacity of 70,000 units.
The plant is in the process of being set up and will cost Rs 25 crore. Once operational by the end of the first quarter next year Kinetic will stop assembly operations at its current plant in Ahmednagar which is leased from Kinetic Engineering.
The 51:49 joint venture company of Motoroyale and Norton will be a separate division within Motoroyale. Under this India will become the only country to manufacture Norton’s bikes outside the UK. Some critical components such as brakes will be made in India and these will be rolled out next year.
The super premium segment of bikes in India has a market of 10,000 bikes a year. These bikes typically have a 250cc-plus engine and cost Rs 3 lakh and above.
“After establishing our sales and service network in India we will want to be the handling export, sales, distribution and service of these bikes in other parts of Asia as well such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand,” added Firodia.
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