Norton launch will give India new evocative options for old-school motorists…
Domestic motorcycle distributors in India are spreading big time and have brought in the Korean Hyosung, part Italian part Chinese Benelli, Italian MV Agusta and we already have the SWM (another Italian brand) knocking our doors. And as we have already told you exclusively, a smaller Italian motorcycle company FB Mondial is also looking to venture into India. So, what next?
In comes the British marque Norton Motorcycles and it is Motoroyale, the multi-brand superbikes branch of Kinetic Motorcycles which is bringing it here. Both the motorcycle companies have formed a joint venture under which Kinetic will assemble and take care of the distribution of Norton branded motorcycles. At an event, both the partners showcased their motorcycles and revealed some basic details of how they plan to operate.
According to Autocar, the Norton Commando 961 has been launched in India at Rs 23 Lakhs ex-showroom Pune. They also inform that currently only one motorcycle has been imported and since the motorcycle is made to order, they will bring in more depending upon the demand.
They also share that instead of the 80 hp (at 6500 rpm) and 90 Nm (at 5200 rpm) of the international-spec motorcycle, Indian version churns out a lot lesser 71.9 hp (at 7500 rpm) and 67 Nm at (6500 rpm) for undisclosed reasons.
Norton currently has a three-motorcycle range which includes V4 RR full faired supersports and Dominator and Commando cafe racers and their variants.
Kinetic Norton India Motorcycles – Pointers
Here are all the details in quick pointers…
- This partnership is not only limited to India but will also take care of the complete Asian region and will include markets like Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia etc.
- The JV estimates the superbike market in India to be 12,000 to 15,000 units which is growing annually at 20 percent.
- Motoroyale expects to take 10-14 percent through Norton which is about 1200-2000 vehicles in India alone.
- With the complete ASEAN region they plan to sell 4000-5000 motorcycles annually in the coming 2-3 years.
- They also plan to introduce Dominator in India. In fact, they intend to introduce all the variants – Commando 961 Sport, 961 Cafe Racer, Dominator Sport and DomiRacer by the end of 2018.
- Parallelly, Motoroyale will set up its CKD assembly for Norton motorcycles.
- Norton is also working on new range and engine platforms and these will also be available to the JV as and when they are ready.
- These motorcycles will be assembled at Kinetic’s Ahmednagar plant (capacity of 30,000 vehicles annually) which will have a dedicated space for Norton motorcycles. Kinetic will also take care of the Indian homologation.
- Kinetic has planned an investment in the region of $ 10 million.
Norton Launch in India
| Norton India Launch | 2018 |
With this launch, they have kick started operations in India however, mainstream motorcycles will start hitting the showrooms in the subsequent months.
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The Dominator and Commando will compete with motorcycles likes BMW R NineT and Thruxton R in India.
