Motoroyale, the Kinetic Group’s premium motorcycle division, has readied an aggressive plan to tap the ever-growing high-end motorcycle segment in India. As part of its full-fledged entry into the Indian market, Motoroyale will now retail five motorcycle brands under one roof. Offering everything from small-displacement scramblers and cruisers to mid-sized adventure tourers and super-exotic sportbikes, this should make Motoroyale’s a versatile and enviable range, to say the last.
So far, Motoroyale has sold MV Agusta motorcycles, with the iconic Italian marque boasting a compact range of super-exotic machines. Then came Norton, which has been in the news for its JV with Motoroyale, the locally manufactured fruits of which will be borne only by March 2019. As of now, Norton has only launched the CBU Commando 961 Cafe Racer in India, at a price of Rs 23 lakh, ex-showroom, Pune.
SWM, another Italian brand which has been in the offing for some time now, will finally make its Indian debut, with the first of its motorcycles being launched in India in the next three weeks, before Motoroyale’s full-swing operations go live. The SWM brand’s first launch will be the Superdual T, a 650cc adventure tourer which was showcased in India in April 2018.
Forming the baseline of Motoroyale’s offerings will be Hyosung, which will retail a V-twin cruiser alongside the full-faired GD250R sport bike. Another new entry into the Motoroyale fold will be FB Mondial, an internationally recognised Italian marque founded in 1929. FB Mondial, resurrected for the third time in 2014, may not be a household name in India – or even in other parts of the world – but its rich racing heritage and equal focus on style and performance should help it make headlines when it is formally introduced in the country next month. FB Mondial’s first offering in India will be a rather cool and scrambler-styled single-cylinder motorcycle called the HPS 300.
Meanwhile, work is on to get CKD assembly of Norton’s range for India ready at Kinetic’s Ahmednagar plant (where all motorcycles from the other brands are being assembled as well). The company is working towards launching the first of the CKD Nortons, the Commando and the Dominator, by April 2019. Until that happens, Norton’s two-model line-up will be CBU imports and will be sold on an order basis.
The recently revealed Atlas 650 scrambler is a crucial motorcycle for Norton’s business plans; it will be produced in India and will be launched towards the festive season of 2019. Norton has announced its intentions to employ heavy localisation as part of its 51:49 (Motoroyale has the major stake) JV and the Atlas is sure to benefit from it. The Atlas 650 will also go on sale internationally in 2019. Given that Norton has declared an ambitious target of registering sales up to 2000 units for its entire range by 2021, the Atlas 650 has a lot riding on its shoulders.
Finally acquiring retail real estate is MV Agusta, which has so far been in business only through Motoroyale’s Pune headquarters. This has impacted its presence in the exotic motorcycle segment, where players like Ducati, and even relatively smaller entities such as Indian Motorcycle and Aprilia, have fared better owing to their sales and service network. MV Agusta will continue to sell the Brutale 800 and F3 800, with the launch of the Turismo Veloce 800 being next on the cards. The next-gen Brutale 1000 will debut at EICMA later this year, heralding MV’s new four-cylinder platform. You can expect this bike in India by end-2019.
Initially, Motoroyale will introduce six outlets in a phased manner, with the first centre slated to open in Delhi by mid-September 2018.