Benelli May Launch Tornado 400 This Year

Benelli may not be launching the full-faired 300cc parallel-twin motorcycle Tornado 302 In India after all, CarandBike.com has learnt. Instead Benelli is looking at launching a 400cc parallel-twin, full-faired bike sometime later this year. The Tornado 302 was unveiled at the EICMA motor show in Milan in November last year, but the Tornado 302 may not see production after all.

"Yes, we did showcase the concept Tornado 302 at the EICMA. But we aren't sure yet whether the bike will be launched in India. We may just scrap that project and instead launch a full-faired 400cc bike in the Indian market, since it makes more sense to have that engine capacity than yet another 300cc bike," Shirish Kulkarni, Motowheels Chairman told CarandBike.com recently.

The predicament Benelli finds itself is this - the 250cc naked TNT 25 was launched last month and Motowheels has a lot riding on the TNT 25's success. Knowing the Indian two wheeler enthusiast's penchant for full-faired bikes, particularly in the entry-level performance segment, Benelli is now mulling over whether to introduce the full-faired Tornado 302 at all. Since there is already a 250cc offering as well as the 300cc TNT 300 in the market, Motowheels is more likely to introduce a parallel-twin 400cc bike instead of a 300cc full-faired offering.

2016 will be an important year for the Benelli brand in India. In all, Benelli has three launches planned for the year - the mid-size adventure tourer Benelli TRK 502, the scrambler-styled Benelli Leoncino and a full-faired Tornado, in all likelihood the Tornado 400. All three bikes will be showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo, but Benelli will probably showcase the Tornado 302 instead of the 400 for now.