The Indian 2-wheeler market is becoming more interesting by the day. While regular bikes have always sold in good numbers, premium products take a while to establish themselves and everything depends on the pricing and positioning of a product. Japanese manufacturer Kawasaki entered India in 2000 in collaboration with the already-established Bajaj. Kawasaki’s bikes are always known to be sporty and the Ninja 250 managed to find a lot of fans here, when it was launched in 2008. Along with Kawasaki, other companies like Yamaha and Honda also launched premium bikes here. Harley-Davidson too is gaining a nice customer base in India and the latest entrant to the 2-wheeler market is Triumph Motorcycles.
Triumph Motorcycles made their entry into India on 28th November 2013 and it has been hardly five months and the company is already showing signs of working aggressively to build a huge customer base. The manufacturer has started 6 different showrooms in all major cities and has already registered 350 sales in five months. Triumph is setting up a target of selling at least 2500 bikes in the next three years. Triumph also offers attractive finance options in association with HDFC bank along with a 2-year unlimited mileage warranty and roadside assistance up to a maximum distance of 200 kms from any service station.
Triumph Motorcycles sells 11 bikes in India. The Bonneville, Bonneville T100, Speed Triple, Street Triple, Thruxton and Daytona 675R are locally assembled while the Rocket III, Tiger Explorer, Tiger 800 XC and Thunderbird Storm are brought in via the CBU route. The range starts from Rs. 5.7 lakhs for the Bonneville and goes up to Rs. 20 lakhs for the Rocket III (ex-showroom).
Kawasaki has only two dealerships of its own, one each in Pune and Delhi, while in other cities Kawasaki bikes are sold through Bajaj Probiking showrooms. Kawasaki sells the following bikes here – Ninja 300, Ninja 650, Ninja 1000, Ninja ZX-10R, Ninja ZX-14R, Z800 and Z1000. The Ninja series starts from Rs. 3.6 lakhs for the Ninja 300 and goes up to Rs. 17.66 lakhs for the ZX-14R while the Z800 and Z1000 are priced at Rs. 8.13 lakhs and Rs. 12.87 lakhs respectively (ex-showroom). So even though Kawasaki arrived much earlier than Triumph, the British brand has more products on sale along with more dealerships too.
The premium bike segment in India is really picking up now. While Harley-Davidson has occupied the top slot now after having sold 4000 bikes, Triumph Motorcycles is also moving its way up the ladder. So the three top competitors in this segment are Harley-Davidson, Kawasaki and Triumph as of now. Will Triumph’s aggression and strategy help it overtake Kawasaki when it comes to sales? Winning doesn’t always lie in sales, companies also need to have good amount of customer satisfaction levels. Will Triumph be able to triumph this segment against Harley-Davidson and Kawasaki? This is one battle we are waiting for.
