The company wants to tap into every bike segment that it possibly can.
News about new bikes from Benelli India continue to come with the latest being that it is developing 135-200cc, single-cylinder bikes with a new technology. These are apart from the twelve new motorcycles that will be introduced in India by 2019.
Benelli had stopped its India operations in May 2018 after breaking up with its former partner, the DSK Group that had gone bankrupt. But the company got a new lease of life when it joined hands with the Mahavir Group recently. The alliance is in high spirits to grab a share of the Indian bike market and has an aggressive strategy in place for the next two years.
The alliance will start introducing new bikes by the end of 2018. These have been confirmed to be the Leoncino 500 and TRK 500. While the former is a scrambler, the latter is an adventure motorcycle. Both the bikes are powered by a 499.6cc, twin-cylinder, liquid-cooled, motor that’s mated to a 6-speed gearbox. It produces 46.9 HP at 8500 RPM and 45 Nm of peak torque at 5000 RPM.
2019 will see eight other bikes including the Benelli Imperiale 400 and Imperiale 530 go on sale in India. These are more retro looking and will target a different set of buyers. If all goes as planned, then the 135-200cc, single-cylinder bikes might also come to India in 2019 but considering that they are still in development phases, nothing can be said for sure. These small displacement bikes will surely give Benelli a much better footing in the market once they go on sale.
By March 2020, Benelli will be introducing the Benelli Leoncino 250 and TRK 250 in India. These two are the younger siblings of the Benelli Leoncino 500 and TRK 500 respectively and will share their engines just like them. This will be the 249cc, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine that produces a maximum power of 25.8 HP and a peak torque of 21.2 Nm. Transmission duties will be handled by a 6-speed transmission.
All the bikes here should be well priced as they will be assembled in Benelli’s Telangana plant near Hyderabad. Its operations will begin by October 2018. The company is also looking to bring local parts suppliers on board for effective pricing.
While rest of the bikes have been confirmed, the Benelli 135-200cc single-cylinder bikes are still some time away as the company wants to currently focus only on the 300-600cc motorcycles that will begin coming to India by the end of 2018 and in 2019. So, it will only be after 2019 that the company’s entry-level premium bikes will be introduced in India.
Benelli 200cc Bikes
– The company is developing small displacement bikes with a new technology
– The bikes will go on sale only after 2019
– Twelve other bikes will however begin to come by the end of 2018
Source – ETAuto.com