Ducati’s return to India has brought in a lot of excitement among the motorcycle enthusiasts of the country. The manufacturer, in a recently held press conference, revealed their future plans for our market. With two dealerships already up and running in Mumbai and Delhi, two of the most financially stable cities in the country, they plan to venture into the IT capital next.
The Bangalore showroom will be managed by VST Motors and will be located in UB City, which is one of the most posh areas of the city and can be expected to be operational in October. This will be around the same time they plan to launch the Multistrada motorcycles into India. Post Bangalore they will move to the biking capital of the nation – Pune and the IT major Hyderabad. The next phase will see entry into other seven major cities which include Calcutta, Chennai, Cochin, Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur and Goa.
To improve on the sour last stint, Ducati India has this time re-opened as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ducati Motor Holdings. They have got Mr Eugene Tao as the Service Manager, who is a Ducati veteran and has been overlooking the after sales service arena of Ducati for the past many years in Asia.
All the existing and upcoming dealerships will either have the service area integrated into the dealerships or are/will be located close to the sales area. They would be extending these facilities to the existing Ducati owners in the country who have so far been plagued by service and spare part woes.
Also Read: Ducati Indian Motorcycle Lineup, Ex-Showroom & On-Road Prices
To start with, it appears that Ducati is serious about its India operations this time round however they do not seem to have any plans to start making their bikes in India anytime soon, they are not contemplating CKDs. Most of the bikes are at present being imported via the Completely Built Unit (CBU) route from their manufacturing facility in Thailand while the limited edition models being brought directly from Italy.