In the last few months, Austrian bike maker KTM has brought some really good bikes, with the 390 Duke being the prime example of the same. It is powerful, more powerful than many bikes which sell for a lot more money in India. It looks good, KTM received a lot of accolades for the design in India and abroad. To take this popularity and competitiveness forward, the company has announced that it will launch a fully-faired version of the 390 Duke, which will be called the KTM 390 Duke R. These bike will be launched in India by the end of 2014. Apart from 390 Duke, the company also has separate plans to roll out a couple of sports bikes every year starting from 2014. These plans are in line with the broader objective to accelerate volumes in India and produce 1 lakh units from partner Bajaj Auto’s Chakan plant.
Since the bikes will be manufactured locally at partner Bajaj’s Chakan facility, you can expect production costs to be lower as compared to the present bikes which come to the country via CBU route. This may see price slash, sales growth and improved margins for the Indo-Austrian joint venture. The bike could receive a more powerful version of the engine used in the 390 Duke, which has a 373cc engine that can generate 43 BHP of power and 36 Nm of torque.
With these launches, the highest direct impact will be on rival Honda. The Japanese automaker recently brought out the Honda CBR500R, CB500F and CB500X motorcycles with the CBR500R gearing up for an Indian launch soon.
Source: MotorBeam.com via IndianAutosBlog.com