The strategic partnership between TVS and BMW Motorrad will soon reveal a new, jointly developed motorcycle, codenamed K03, for the Indian as well as for the global market. This upcoming motorcycle, is reaching the final phase of its development cycle and is scheduled to be unveiled by the year end. Early this year, BMW Motorrad CEO Stephan Schaller had confirmed that the upcoming TVS-BMW motorcycle will be powered by a sub-500cc single cylinder motor and will be completely engineered by the German two-wheeler manufacturer. However, no further details about the upcoming motorcycle were revealed.
Now, latest reports from import/export data website Zauba reveals that TVS-BMW has exported as many as 32 units (two units with “dummy engines”) of the K03 motorcycle to Germany for R&D purposes. Each unit of the motorcycle is priced at around Rs 107,250. Now, that price, for a ‘sub-500cc’ motorcycle, if it is in reality close to the specified cubic capacity sounds a tad too less to us. While no official details have yet emerged about the exact displacement and power output of the new product, that price leaves us baffled. Even for a product meant for R&D purposes, that sort of price is too conservative for a near-500cc product. Does that mean that the upcoming TVS-BMW product has a likelihood of being a 250-300cc product? We wish not, as the game has moved ahead, and bringing a product in that segment won’t help bolster the image of either of the companies for the performance enthusiast.
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While the aforementioned cost of the exported models excludes the taxes and profit, we expect the price of the final product to hover around Rs 2 lakh mark which would place the K03 against the highly successful and much adored and admired KTM Duke 390. TVS-BMW are unlikely to be able to beat the KTM-Bajaj duo on the pricing front, and unless there is significant advantage in terms of performance for a similar or heftier price tag, we don’t see much of a point in this entire exercise.
An official statement earlier revealed that the new motorcycle will be 100% engineered by the German automaker while TVS will provide its facility to produce the bikes cost effectively.
A sub-500cc motorcycle for R&D purposes for a price of 1 lakh – doesn’t it sound too less for a product which promises to push the goalpost in the accessible performance category? What is it that TVS-BMW are cooking together? Any thoughts, insights and insider information is welcome. Share your views via the comments section below or write to us at feedback@motoroids.com
There is no news about a faired version but even we would love to see one.
Only naked variant will be offered or there is a faired version too?
‘Sub-500cc’ also includes 250-300cc. Please don’t hang up on words used by executives. They merely used standard terms precisely not to disclose the exact cc of the bike. I like a tvs/bmw 500cc too but it is still a few years away.
The first product is 300cc which is also a “sub- 500cc” motorcycle. “Sub -500cc” doesn’t mean it has to be 499cc.
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