The first bike courtesy of the Bajaj-Triumph Motorcycles partnership in India could be the Avenger 400, and it could reportedly launch by 2022, according to media reports quoting Rajiv Bajaj on the sidelines of an event in Delhi.
Bajaj, the Pune-based two-wheeler manufacturer had announced a non-equity partnership with Triumph Motorcycles in August 2017 and was highly expected to showcase its first product by end of 2020, but it looks like this has been pushed for a later date.
The report further claims that Bajaj and Triumph are currently eyeing the sub-500cc segment, most likely to compete with Royal Enfield, where it has been selling the Classic 350 series in big numbers for many years now. This suggests that Bajaj will want to rechristen its Avenger series, with a 400 or 500 variant, to launch a cruiser bike in the market.
Bajaj has certainly thrived in its previous global partnerships, most notably the KTM association, which has worked to good effect. The company is already in the process of making the Husqvarna series for the Indian market, expected to launch in 2020, and soon it’ll be adding the Bajaj-Triumph bikes to its fleet.
And now, Bajaj will be hoping that making the Triumph-engineered bikes locally will help the company to compete with Royal Enfield (RE) in the cruiser segment, and later enter the sports biking segment as well.
Pricing will be the key to Bajaj-Triumph’s fight with RE. The segment has also got two new additions from Jawa and Benelli with their versions of sub-400cc cruiser bikes for the Indian audience.
It will be interesting to see how the bikes will be branded, and if Bajaj would be capable of sticking to the standards that Triumph would seek for these bikes. It’s still early days, but watch this space for developments on this partnership.
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