It’s official, Benelli has announced plans to enter India in the immediate future, partnering up with DSK Motowheels. With India now being on the world map for 2-wheeler companies, Benelli doesn’t want to be left behind and is betting big on our market which is growing at a steady pace too. Benelli was founded in 1911 which makes it (not Ducati) the oldest Italian motorcycle manufacturer. The company was sold to China’s Qianjiang Group and quite a few lower capacity bikes have emerged post the takeover, all these are headed to India.
The good news is, Benelli will not only launch small capacity bikes but also full blown motorcycles with 4-cylinder engines in India. The automaker has a multitude of products in its lineup, ranging from 150cc to 1600cc machines across all categories. The C150 is the company’s entry-level product which is powered by a 150cc single-cylinder engine. The Benelli C250 is also a single-cylinder engined bike as well, it outputs 24.5 HP and 21 Nm. These bikes feature upside down front forks but no motorcycles comes with ABS.
The most interesting product is the BN 302 which can give the KTM Duke 390 and Kawasaki Z250 some tough competition. This street-fighter employs a 300cc, parallel-twin motor to generate 37 HP and 27.1 Nm. Benelli also has scooters in its lineup and the automaker uses the suffix GTS, K, F, R, RS on some of its motorcycles for signifying sports-tourer, adventure, faired and sport models. One bike which caught our attention is the Benelli TNT 1130, it produces 158 HP of power and 120 Nm of torque. Benelli’s lineup is insanely big with so many products on offer but it remains to be seen which all make it to our shores.
Benelli has plans to locally assemble bikes in India via the CKD route and plans to increase local content and manufacture a few products in the country in the future, thereby opening up export opportunities. This pricing of the bikes will be very competitive. DSK will sep up independent showrooms for Benelli and 8 of them will be operation by January 2015, to be increased to 20 outlets by the end of next year. The company will compete against Triumph, Kawasaki and Harley-Davidson in the premium motorcycle space while Kawasaki, KTM and TVS-BMW are likely to face the heat in the sub-500cc space. At today’s event, Benelli showcased 5 bikes to the media (these will be launched first) – BN 302, BN 600 GT, BN 600 I, TNT 899, TNT 1130R. The company sells 30,000 units annually every year.
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