Good news for prospective Indian KTM Duke buyers. The Austrian automaker’s CEO, Stefan Pierer has confirmed fairing and touring versions of the Duke 390 are in the works. KTM will launch these versions of the Duke 390 in India in 2014. The company plans to launch a new motorcycle every six months starting from 2014. This will help KTM boost volumes and achieve their target of churning out 1 lakh units from Bajaj Auto’s Chakan facility.
Indians love full faired motorcycles and KTM seems to have understood that quickly. Development of the fully faired 390 Duke has already commenced, which could be called the 390R. A touring version is also being considered, which could be badged as the Adventure version of the 390 Duke. With these launches, KTM is clearly looking to spoil Honda’s party. The Japanese automaker recently unveiled the Honda CBR500R, CB500F and CB500X motorcycles.
“For India, I can expect 180cc, 190cc and not a 125cc. We expect additional displacements, the 390cc is coming which is a full faired version and the so called tour purpose version. By the end, we have a full model range where we can settle in all these and especially the Asian markets,” Stefan Pierer, CEO, KTM, said in an interview.
With KTM leaving the manufacturing operation completely to Bajaj, the Austrian company can expect cheaper costs of production, resulting in more aggressive pricing and higher profits too. Thus, we can expect Bajaj-KTM to undercut the pricing of the Honda CBR500R when it launches the full faired 390 Duke in India. With the 373cc engine belting out 43 BHP of power and 36 Nm of torque, one can expect, the Duke 390R to be as quick as rocket as the street fighter version of the bike. The Adventure version might not be launched in India, as the demand for touring bikes is not that significant.
Source – MoneyControl
