Post Audi’s acquisition of Ducati, the Italian motorcycle maker wants to enter India on its own and will start locally assembling bikes in the country in the future.
You read it first on MotorBeam. If you remember our last article on Ducati, we told you that the Italian company is late to the Indian motorcycle party because it had announced plans to enter our country officially in only 2017 with BMW Motorrad coming in the same year. But Ducati seems to have begun slightly earlier than expected. Ducati has started testing the 2015 Diavel in the country (spotted in Bangalore) with Maharashtra licence plates, which we think is prior to homologation as the company is likely to go the CKD route in the future but not before 2017. Audi now owns Ducati and the company had announced plans to enter the Indian market on its own.
Bangalore was recently chosen as the testing ground by Kawasaki for their Z250 and now the Diavel was spotted there. This is only because of the fantastic roads the city has to offer in terms of length and smooth highways, the garden city can also eat all the emissions quite easily these bikes puff out. The old version of the Diavel was sold in our country and was one of the most popular models for Ducati in India because it sold in good numbers. Obviously it is simply because the rich love anything which is big and bad and has the red Italian badge on it.
The 2015 Ducati Diavel comes with a completely revised features list and in terms of style there are only minimum changes. The Diavel now gets LED DRLs. The main headlight and turn indicators also get the LED treatment. Comprehensive changes to the cluster along with electronic rider aids such as ABS, traction control and much more also make it to the bike. Ducati as always boasts of one of the largest rear tyre size which is a humongous 240 section while the front has the usual 120 mm. The hugger and the number plate holder with fantastic integrated tail light makes it undeniably recognised as the Ducati Diavel (like how our source in Bangalore recognised it).
The engine of the Ducati Diavel is a dual-spark 1198cc Testastretta motor which produces 162 BHP and a heart thumping 130 Nm of torque that is channeled via a 6-speed gearbox to that massive 240 mm rear tyre. Expect it to ride, handle and go like no other bike in that particular segment. The Diavel now comes with a tagline saying that “don’t call me a cruiser” but actually it is a power cruiser which also comes with a seat that can take your super thin, super model girlfriend from Mumbai to Lonavala or Bangalore to Nandi hills. Expect this bike to be priced at a ridiculous Rs. 23-25 lakhs (ex-showroom) because of the 110% custom duty rate (Rs. 11 lakhs is the price in Europe).
