The Indian biking scene is hotting up like never before ! What with every bikemaker setting shops in India like Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki, and with the latest one to enter this month, Triumph, bikers are spoilt in terms of choices.
Now, according to a report by BusinessStandard, Austrian sports motorcycle maker KTM Sportmotorcycles AG , which was brought to India by the Bajaj Auto Group, today said it plans to manufacture Husqvarna bikes at partner Bajaj Auto’s (BAL) Chakan facility in the next two years.
Stefan Pierer, chief executive officer, KTM Sportmotorcycles AG said, “Our current focus is KTM bikes, but in the next two years you will see the Husqvarna bikes coming from the Chakan plant.” In January this year, Pierer, who owns a majority stake (52%) in KTM, had acquired Husqvarna from Germany’s BMW Group.
The Austrian bike maker is also gearing up to launch a sports model under KTM RC series that will hit the market by the end of next year. “KTM has developed a full-fledged sports model under the brand RC. We will launch it by the end of
next year”, informed Rajiv Bajaj, managing director, BAL. The RC series will have more than one engine capacity and it will be manufactured at BAL’s Chakan plant.
Overall, KTM plans to have six models on road in India over the next two years. Pierer also added that KTM may also bring its Duke 690 model to India by 2015, about which we reported just yesterday.
In the year 2007, BAL had acquired 14.5 per cent stake in KTM and gradually increased it to 48 per cent.
Under the KTM range, the partners currently retails the Duke 200 and Duke 390 bikes in India. Also, the Duke 125 produced here in Chakan is exported to the European markets.