Kawasaki and Bajaj Auto today launched the much awaited Kawasaki Ninja 650R sportsbike in India. The launch event was held at the Bajaj Auto Auditorium at Pune. Mr. Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto was present for the occasion. India Kawasaki Motors was represented by Mr. Yoshiro Segawa, Managing Director (designate). The new Kawasaki Ninja 650R is launched in India at a price of Rs 4.57 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).
Kawasaki has managed to price the Ninja 650R pretty competitively compared to the Hyosung GT 650R which will be the main rival of this bike. The Ninja 650R comes loaded with MotoGP inspired technology.
Triple petal disc brake, daytime running lights, under-slung exhaust, offset rear mono-shock suspension and a liquid cooled inline twin cylinder engine which pumps out 72.1 Ps of max power @ 8500 rpm and 66 Nm of torque @ 7000 rpm. The triple petal discs at both ends with twin semi floating upfront is a patent Kawasaki technology.
The launch was preceded by an introduction of the Ninja brand by Mr. Eric Vaz, President (New Project Development). The Bajaj management did not reveal any details of its future plans for India as far as the collaboration with Kawasaki over high capacity performance bikes is concerned but, do expect more powerful models from the Ninja line-up in the near future.
The Kawasaki Ninja 650R will be imported into India through CKD channels even though it attracts the current 30 percent import duty. The bike will be assembled at Bajaj’s Chakan plant but as for now there are no plans to manufacture engines to avoid the extra import duty. The new Ninja 650R will be available at Bajaj Probiking showrooms across the country.
As of now, there are 30 dealerships in India and Bajaj is looking at expanding the network further. A delivery period of 90 days is what Bajaj predicts at the moment but this could change depending upon the demand. Secondly, the situation in Japan is still improving after the earthquake and tsunami and it could take at least 2 months for the production at the Japanese plants to normalize. Since, most of the components come from Japan, it could also have an affect on the delivery period.
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