Kinetic MotoRoyale Planning To Develop 300-500 cc Bikes In India

Pune-based Kinetic-MotoRoyale is planning to venture into the 300-500 cc segment with its own motorcycle, a report from IANS states. The motorcycle retailer has brands like MV Agusta, SWM, FB Mondial, Norton, Hyosung and more, under its belt and sells a range of offerings via its premium multi-brand showrooms across the country. The report further stated that the manufacturer is in the process of setting up a new assembly plant with a capacity of 60,000 units at Supa in Maharashtra an an initial investment of Rs. 12 crore.

Quoting MotoRoyale Managing Director, Ajinkya Firodia, the report said that the upcoming bike in the 300-500 cc segment will be priced in the vicinity of Rs. 2-3 lakh, while plans for the offering will go live in 2021. What's not clear is if the motorcycle is being developed in collaboration with another manufacturer or will be independently sold as a MotoRoyale product.

At present, Kinetic-MotoRoyale imports all the bikes as Completely Built Units (CBUs) or Completely Knocked Down (CKDs), the latter being assembled at its Ahmednagar facility in Maharashtra, which has a capacity of 8000 units. The company already retails the recently launched FB Mondial HPS 300 in the 300-500 cc segment that is priced at Rs. 3.37 lakh (ex-showroom).

Meanwhile, MotoRoyale is in the process of locally assembling Norton bikes in India, which will then be shipped to South East Asian markets. The Kinetic Group has a 51:49 joint venture with the British motorcycle company and will be only importing 37 models from the UK as special edition offerings. The rest will be assembled here with locally sourced components, and will be exported to neighbouring markets. The company is also working to introduce Norton's 650 cc motorcycle in India by 2020 with local components.

MotoRoyale has a target to sell 2500 bikes next year and is working to expand its dealer network. By 2019, the retailer plans to add 18 outlets across top Indian cities. The report also says Firodia is also working to dilute its stake in the group by 20-30 per cent private equity players to raise Rs. 75-100 crore to concentrate on its superbike ventures.

The market size for premium motorcycles at about 13,000 units per annum, the segment is logging 20 per cent growth, according to Firodia