Kawasaki threw a green bomb in the market by launching their Ninja 650R at an astonishing 4.5 7lakh! People thought that since the Ninja 250 was slightly overpriced the 650 will also follow the same route, but Bajaj has managed to keep it low so much that it has seriously pressurized their immediate rival the Hyosung’s GT650R which is priced at 4.75 lakh! The Ninja in the American market costs a thousand dollars more than the Hyosung’s GT650R.
Hyosung being under immense pressure has now decided to localize their motorcycles. Hyosung bikes made it to India through the CKD route; with localization the company will save on the extra tax it pays to the Government which will help the company to reduce the prices of their bikes.
We are also looking at forging a joint venture for manufacturing the Hyosung range here in India with S&T within the next two years. Already a team comprising engineers from S&T and Garware are working on identifying the parts that can be localised. Then we would have to work on creating a vendor base – Miss Diya Garware Ibanez, who is the Managing Director of Garware
Hyosung also plans 8 bikes in the next three years with the next launch to be the 250cc segment which is already dominated by the Honda and Kawasaki. With localization Hyosung can really help many biking enthusiasts by becoming a poor man’s racing bike.