It has just been announced that Bajaj will take over all sales and service operations for Triumph in India. This is part of the strategic partnership announced by the two companies a few years ago, which also involves Bajaj and Triumph co-developing new entry-level mid-capacity Triumph models that will be manufactured by Bajaj at its Chakan facility.
Triumph’s India operations will now come under Bajaj’s Probiking business, which is headed by Sumeet Narang. Meanwhile, Shoebh Farooq, who was thus far the business head for Triumph India, has now moved to Bajaj’s electric mobility arm, Chetak Technology Ltd.
First Bajaj-Triumph bike to launch in 2023
As part of these official announcements, it is now confirmed that the first new model to come from this partnership will be launched in 2023, and we expect it to arrive in the next few months. Bajaj and Triumph had earlier announced that there would be multiple different displacements offered, spanning between 200 and 700cc.
Triumph dealer network to grow to 120 cities in India
To cater to these new, more affordable Triumph models, the company’s dealer network will also be expanded exponentially over the next 2 years from its current reach of 15 cities to 120 cities. We believe that the showrooms will be tiered, with some of them being isolated to India's biggest cities and focusing mainly on higher-end bikes developed solely by Triumph. The other showrooms will be spread out between tier two and three cities and are likely to offer a mix of the big bikes as well as the smaller made-in-India models. How that mix will be decided and spread out across the country remains to be seen.
What’s been made clear is that we will not see Bajaj and Triumph-branded motorcycles housed under the same roof. The Triumph operation will be run independently of both Bajaj and KTM, and Triumph showrooms will remain exclusive to the brand. The press release also states that “these new showrooms will be created in line with Triumph’s global standards.”