BMW’s First Made-In-India Motorcycles Launched With A Starting Price Of Rs 3 Lakh
BMW on Wednesday rolled out locally-made motorcycles in India — with an entry price of Rs 3 lakh — as the German brand looks to tap into the growing love of Indians for luxury and leisure biking.
After making a 310cc bike, BMW is also exploring the sub-300cc space as it wants to develop new models for India, that can be also be sold across the world markets.
BMW Motorrad, the motorcycling arm of the company, has partnered Venu Srinivasan’s TVS Motors for manufacturing of two models — G310R and G310 GS — at its Hosur plant.
TVS sells its own version of motorcycles under the Apache range, which are priced much lower. BMW has started sale of 310cc bikes through a handful of Motorrad dealerships.
“We begin with seven retailers, and this should go up to 10 by next year,” Dimitris Raptis, Motorrad’s head of region (Asia, China, Pacific and South Africa), said.
The company has been selling over a dozen more-powerful models in India, which are expensive (upwards of Rs 12 lakh) and come via imports. The imported line-up consists of 15 models and prices here can go up to Rs 85 lakh for the 999cc HP4 Race model.
BMW has already started exports of the 310cc model. “We have had a good run with 310cc model over the past one year, and have clocked sales of around 20,000 units across markets in Europe, North America, Russia, China, Japan and South Africa,” Raptis said.
“There has been an extremely positive acceptance and we are very pleased with the commitment and manufacturing quality of our partner TVS.” A number of luxury makers, including Harley-Davidson in bikes and Jeep in SUVs, have been looking at local manufacturing of lower-cc models to drive in affordability and appeal among Indian buyers.
Originally Published In The Times Of India.
