Bajaj eyes overseas market to sell bikes with Kawasaki

“We both are actively discussing to take it (two-wheeler expansion) to other markets. Discussions about this are going on,” BAL Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj told reporters at the launch of the Kawasaki Ninja 650R bike.

“As far as the Indian market is concerned, we will continue to bring more bikes with Kawasaki,” he said. BAL and Kawasaki have an agreement to sell the probikes in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The Ninja 650R has been priced at Rs 4.57 lakh (ex-showroom). The on-road price would be below Rs 5 lakh.

Bajaj said the previous model, Ninja 250R, has sold 1,500 bikes so far, and hopes to be a market leader in the premium biking segment. He did not divulge any specific sales target for the latest product. “We have tried very hard to reduce our cost and as a result, we are launching it at this price," he said, adding that Kawasaki was ensuring quality despite the “lower” value of the new model.

BAL said they had to pay 30 per cent duties as the engine is not assembled in India, but added it will not pass on the burden to the customers for the Ninja 250R and had already taken into account the custom duties while pricing the 650R. “The waiting period for 250R is 60-70 days because of the tsunami (creating supply-chain problems). We are expecting that in two months’ time the vendors will be back to normal and the waiting period comes down,” BAL President (New Products) Eric Vas said.

On the production capacity to roll out the Ninja 650R, Vas said the assembling kit had just arrived and the company has assembled 10 bikes so far. It is currently producing 35-40 Ninja 250R bikes a month. BAL said launching the KTM model is next on the agenda but did not give any timeframe.