Back in February 2015, Rajiv Bajaj surprised cruiser fans when he was caught on tape revealing that they have plans to launch a new Avenger and the timeline he suggested was between March till June this year (here). We are almost into the middle of this month of June and there doesn’t appear to be any signals of the new motorcycle, nor are there any spyshots or leaks which could lead us to believe something is really happening on this front.
Now, Eric Vas, President of the motorcycle business of Bajaj Auto has left us confused a wee bit more. In an interview with Autocarpro, Eric says
We have been looking at the Avenger segment for some time and we are trying to understand what can be done. We will gradually bring our focus back on that brand because we think there is a lot of potential on that end of the market.
Now, this certainly goes in tandem with Rajiv Bajaj’s word the company is indeed working on ‘something’ for the Avenger, however, gauging by his (Eric’s) casual response, it doesn’t appear that it is coming to us in the tentative timeline (till June) suggested by Mr Bajaj earlier. It appears that the final work on Avenger has still not begun and hence we have not seen a single test mule of the motorcycle out on the roads testing yet.
There have been certain rumors which predict that Avenger will get the 200cc 4-valve motor from the Pulsar 200 series. History also says that whenever there has been a new flagship Pulsar, its engine has gone to the Avenger. But this time we are a little skeptical. We are not 100 percent confident that Bajaj will really plonk 200NS’ motor on the cruiser since it would require a comprehensive restructuring or a completely new frame and other bits. It will really depend upon how deep Bajaj wants to go..
Also Read: Smaller Pulsar CS200 (Cruiser Sports) Hinted; CS400 NOT Launching This Year
Eric Vas also shared that their Avenger 220 is currently clocking some 4500 unit sales per month which is a very respectable number for the niche segment it plays in…
