It is finally happening! Benelli, Italy’s oldest motorcycle brand has officially announced its plans for India. At a glimmering ceremony in Pune, the company unveiled 5 motorcycles from their international line-up which they plan to introduce in India.
The company is now owned by the Qjian Jiang group and has its manufacturing facility at Wenling, 500 km from Shanghai. Here is a small list of things which we have been able to deduce from today’s event:
- The company will be in an active partnership with the DSK family, much like the DSK Hyosung alliance. Products will be CKD and will be assembled initially at DSK’s facility at Satara, Maharashtra. Localisation will be increased based on the performance of the brand.
- Benelli has a long term partnership plan with DSK and hopes that it will outlast Hero and Honda’s alliance. The company is very serious about India as a market and will be reviewing the business on a year on year basis and doddle with the investment accordingly
- The five motorcycles showcased will be launched in a span of two months and will have 20 dealerships operational before the end of 2015, the first of which can be expected to be operational in January, 2015. The first range of dealerships will include Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai and Kolkata in next 3-4 months.
- Apart from these five beauties, the alliance plans to introduce the true Italian blood in the commuter segment and will bring out a range of 125-200 cc motorcycles to further expand the brand. Benelli has a long range of scooters which start from as low as 50cc, the alliance wants to enter in to smaller cities with them in the future. The lower capacity models will be evolved as per the Indian market requirement.
- The company understands that biking culture is slowly coming of age in India. They also plan to form groups like the Hyryders (DSK Hyosung owners club) for their customers.
- Benelli has an annual capacity of around 1 lakh units and they aim to increase their Indian sales to 16000-18000 units per annum in the next 3-4 years.
The five motorcycles which they plan to introduce in India include the street nakeds TNT 302, TNT 600i, TNT 899 and the TNR 1130 R and a semi-fared TNT 600GT. We will talk in detail about these soon so stay tuned and rejoice 🙂
DSK Benelli Indian Launch Pics
