At the beginning of the month, we broke the news about QJ Motor making its entry into the Indian market, and now, the company has just announced this officially. As we've reported earlier, the line-up is confirmed to contain four models: the SRC 250 and SRC 500 retros, the SRK 400 streetfighter and the SRV 300 cruiser.
QJ Motor India line-up: specifications
Besides announcing the line-up, QJ Motor also revealed official specifications for all four models, and some of them have been tweaked for India compared to the versions sold overseas. The SRC 500, for example, is a retro motorcycle that, abroad, rolls on wire-spoke wheels and gets analogue instrumentation. But in India, it receives an alloy wheel set-up and fully digital instrumentation. The mechanicals remain the same, with a 480cc single-cylinder, air-cooled engine producing 25.5hp and 36Nm.
The smaller SRC 250 is down on displacement, but features more advanced technology than the larger 500, with a parallel-twin, oil-cooled 249cc engine. Output figures are rather humble, though, at 17.4hp and 17Nm, meaning that it’s outgunned by the likes of the Suzuki Gixxer 250 and Yamaha FZ 25. Even the smaller KTM 200 Duke produces more power and torque than the quarter-litre QJ, and the SRC’s output figures are more comparable to something like a TVS Apache RTR 160 4V.
One QJ Motor model that doesn’t disappoint on the spec sheet is the SRK 400. In fact, it seems quite well poised to offer competition to something like a KTM 390 Duke, with a 400cc parallel-twin that produces 40.9hp and 37Nm. With an extra cylinder over the KTM, it is considerably heavier, though, at 186kg (kerb). On the upside, it does pack in some beefy underpinnings, with a twin disc set-up up front and a chunky upside-down fork.
The final model for India is perhaps the most intriguing, in the form of the SRV 300. This is a V-twin cruiser with a strong Harley-Davidson connection. The Milwaukee giant is keen to tap into the rapidly growing middleweight segment in Asian markets, and to that end, it has partnered up with QJ Motor. The SRV300 is a model that could be rebadged as a Harley-Davidson and sold in many of these markets. If it does sport the H-D badge sometime in the near future, it will become one of only a handful of Harleys to be powered by a liquid-cooled engine. Displacing 296cc, this motor produces 30.3hp and 26Nm for India, and is paired to a 6-speed gearbox.
All of QJ Motor’s incoming models produce slightly less power in their Indian guises than they do overseas. This is likely down to the fact that our BS6/Euro 5 emission norms are more stringent than those enforced in QJ’s home market of China.
With an entry to our market now officially announced and the line-up revealed, the only missing piece of the puzzle is the prices for these upcoming motorcycles, which should be revealed quite soon. Once launched the QJ models will be sold through the multi-brand Motovault dealerships, which currently sell Zontes and Moto Morini models.