The maverick bike brand Aprilia has been a Piaggio subsidiary since 2004 and together they form the fourth largest motorcycle group in the world.
Piaggio is well and truly here and is considering seriously assembling the brand Aprilia super bikes’ CKD kits here in India according to Business Standard. The move, Piaggio believes, will make the brand affordable and more acceptable. This is the kind of news that makes a body’s day worthwhile. Hustle up, Piaggio, is what we say.
The brand Aprilia is here already bringing bikes the CBU route. Naturally, importing the completely built units takes the asking price hideously high taking it away from the grasp of most but infinitesimal number of bikers in the country. Currently, Aprilia has in India 4 motorcycles and a scooter on sale and none of them could be had for anything below INR 10.0 lakhs.
The five models are:
- 1000cc supersport RSV4
- 1000cc naked Tuono V4
- 1200cc adventure-tourer Dorsoduro
- 850cc tourer/commuter Mana
- and SRV 850 – the most powerful scooter in the world
The price tag on a CBU bike is no less than 140% higher as compared to the same bike manufactured/assembled locally from CKD kits (which is a lot lesser).
At the present time, Aprilia has showrooms in Pune and Gurgaon and is working on setting up showrooms in Chandigarh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. The customer response from these cities as regards the CKD Aprilia will help Piaggio decide whether or not to introduce in India another nutcase Italian that goes by the name of Moto Guzzi.
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