Kawasaki Ninja crossed the 1,000 sales mark within one year of launch. To celebrate the achievement of 1,000 Ninja’s on Indian Road Kawasaki and Bajaj Auto organized a rally on 30th October. The rally was organized in Pune and attended by owners of the Ninja 250R with their Kawasaki Ninja 250R from Pune as well as Mumbai.
With the achievement of 1,000th Ninja sales Kawasaki announced to start operation of its subsidiary India Kawasaki Motors (IKM) Pvt Ltd in Pune. IKM will start operations within 2-3 months and will manufacture two-wheeler components at the Bajaj plant in Akurdi complex.
Presently Kawasaki sale Ninja through CKD (Completely Knocked Down) route, which attracts lesser rate of duty compared to CBU (Completely Built Unit). The parts then been assembled into Bajaj Auto’s Chakan plant.
On this occasion Mr. Tanigawa, MD, IKM, said “The launch of Kawasaki Ninja 250R has been a great success and the sales of the bikes has exceeded our expectations. The product appeal coupled with great after sales service support from Bajaj Probiking has propelled the sales of the Kawasaki Ninja 250R. We will continue our efforts in further strengthening the Ninja brand in India. Being the first 250cc multi-cylinder bike in India, our strategy is to focus more on the services than the sales in order to maintain the quality.”
He also said “At present, part sourcing and importing more two-wheelers from the Kawasaki range will be the main focus of the unit. It will also try to bring in localisation and certain components manufactured in India will be supplied to the global markets. As phenomenal growth in the transport segment is expected in India over the next 10-15 years so Kawasaki is looking at mid to large size bikes up to the 1000cc sector.”
Eric Vas, President (new projects), Bajaj Auto, said, “India has 32 Bajaj-Probiking showrooms as it is being retailed in India through Bajaj. There are 7 showrooms in Maharashtra. The bikes are being assembled in the Chakan plant in Pune. The on-road cost of a Kawasaki Ninja 250R is about Rs 3 lakh, excluding the registration charges that tend to have variations from one state to the other.”
With this occasion it is confirmed that soon we have larger capacity bikes from Kawasaki. Kawasaki also looking to bring down the cost by sourcing some parts locally.
– Mahavir Kothari
