12 Benelli Bikes Launch By 2019 says the company which will include 250 and 500cc motorcycles in different formats along with some 300’s
The Italian motorcycle manufacturer- Benelli is officially back in India with a new partner. Previously, Benelli came into the Indian market in partnership with the DSK Group. Due to the serious financial troubles faced by their partners last year, Benelli had to shut down its operation in India.
Now, Benelli has officially announced that they are back in business in India and have now partnered with Mahavir Group- a company based in Hyderabad. This strategic partnership is between Benelli QJ and Adishwar Auto Ride India (AARI) which runs under Mahavir Group.
Mahavir Group has been in the automotive industry for the past 30 years, and it has been running many dealerships of Skoda, Mercedes Benz, Benelli and Indian Motorcycles. With this partnership, it will mark Mahavir Groups first step into vehicle manufacturing.
According to the deal, Mahavir Group is setting up an assembly plant towards the outskirts of Hyderabad which is under an MOU with the Telangana government. At this plant, the bikes will be assembled as it will be imported as CKD (Completely Knocked Down) units. This plant is being developed on a wide spread of three-acre land and it is expected that the operation will begin from the month of October 2018.
For the operations in the Indian market, Mahavir-AARI will look after the sales, after sales, service and spare parts availability. But the company will be branded as Benelli and will not include Mahavir Groups names. This is done keeping in mind the international theme.
With this, Benelli is also planning to push itself by launching new models for the Indian market. The Chinese owned Italian motorcycle manufacturer will continue with the sales of the models which was previously launched in India. This includes the TNT 300 (Naked), 302R (Faired) and the TNT 600i (Naked), while the TNT 25 and the TNT 600 GT have been discontinued.
This is just the starting, Benelli is planning to launch some new models before the end of this financial year. According to the plan, the TNT 300 (Naked) will be replaced with the TNT 302S, which is an updated version of the TNT 300 that was showcased for the first time at the 2017 EICMA. The trellis frame will remain the same and so will the parallel twin engine producing 38 horsepower. Benelli is keen on launching the 302S in the Indian market and is expected to happen towards the end of 2018.
Also on the cards is the launch of the TRK 502 and the Leoncino and they both will come in two variants. The two variants for the Leoncino include the standard trim and the off-road-focused trim. This off-road variant is known as the Leoncino Trail which will come equipped with spoke wheels and knobby tyres.
On the other hand, the TRK 502 will also come with standard trim and an off-road trim known as the 502X. Once launched the TRK 502 will compete with the Royal Enfield Imperial 400 which is also scheduled to be launched by 2019. The TRK 502 will be the most affordable Benelli in the Indian market.
Benelli is also planning to launch bikes with a 250cc engine by the end of 2019 in the Indian market. This bikes will be the Leoncino 250 and TRK 250 as announced by the Italian Motorcycle manufacturer. Powering these bikes will be a 249cc single cylinder engine that produces 25.8 horsepower and 21.2 Nm of twist.
In accordance with the current Benelli owners, the company has announced that they will be providing complete support to them. They have already started stalking up the spares at their respective showrooms. With this, Benelli is eager to improve it’s after sales network and customer engagement experience.
Already the there are 18 dealerships which are being inherited from DSk-Benelli who have agreed to continue with the brand. Benelli is also aggressively getting more dealers and it has plans to set up 20 dealerships in the next two years. With this, we can say that Benelli has been working hard and will also try to get a stronghold of the Indian market.
