KTM and Bajaj Auto are said to be developing quite a lot of things for the near future. The companies are planning to dominate the Indian premium motorcycle space. While Bajaj Auto is doing very well with the new Pulsar 200 NS, the Duke 200 hasn’t really set the sales chart on fire, as the Austrian automaker would have expected. Just recently it was confirmed that work on the Pulsar 375 has already commenced. KTM too has plans of launching a 375cc motorcycle in the Indian market. So there are high chances both KTM and Bajaj engines will share technology.
KTM and Bajaj are jointly developing motorcycles between 125cc to 375cc in capacity. We have already seen the Duke 125 and Duke 200, both of which are manufactured at Bajaj Auto’s Chakan facility. Both companies are now working on two new motorcycle platforms, which will spawn future KTM and Bajaj bikes. The companies are also developing a twin-cylinder engine, which will soon find its way into both KTM and Bajaj motorcycles. This twin-cylinder machine is most likely to be sub-400cc in capacity.
Twin-cylinder motorcycles are not affordable in India yet and Bajaj Auto could very well change that notion. The company is known to offer affordable performance with the Pulsar and one can expect India’s first locally manufactured twin-cylinder motorcycle to roll out of Chakan by 2014. Naturally with heavy localization, the twin-cylinder motorcycle will be very aggressively priced, thereby giving biking enthusiasts some reason to cheer.
