Bajaj Auto and its Austrian partner KTM are taking their 17-year-old partnership a notch higher as they plan to produce their first twin-cylinder motorcycle in India.
A 500cc premium motorcycle, under the brand KTM, will be manufactured at Bajaj Auto’s Chakan plant near Pune. Besides India, this new product will be exported to all the top KTM markets of the west.
This will also be the biggest and the most expensive motorcycle from the partnership yet highlighting the fledging business arrangement between the two companies. The two companies have been jointly designing and developing motorcycles using their in-house research and development teams.
Twin cylinder motorcycles are niche and uncommon in India given their premium price tags. Bajaj will be the only second company in India to produce them. Royal Enfield launched the Interceptor and Continental GT bikes powered by twin cylinder engines.
“We are developing a 500cc twin (cylinder) engine in India which will become a global product for KTM. We have derived supply structure in the right areas at the right assembling footprints,” said a senior executive of Pierer Mobility AG, the parent of KTM at a recent analyst call.
In India, KTM has four models each under three categories – Naked bike, Supersport and Travel – having engines in the range of 125cc and 373cc. These are single cylinder motorcycles produced alongside bikes from the Husqvarna, a brand owned by Pierer Mobility.
From around 90,000 units a year clocked just before the partnership with Bajaj Auto in 2007, KTM closed 2023 at around 280,000 units. Bajaj had produced 1 million units of KTM and Husqvarna until January 2023. Bajaj exports these bikes to more than 100 countries
The publicly-listed Pierer Mobility’s 74.6% is owned by Pierer Bajaj in which 49.9% is held by Bajaj Auto International Holdings BV, a 100% subsidiary of Bajaj Auto.
From around Euro 149 million recorded in 2007, Pierer Mobility’s (KTM Power Sports AG then) consolidated revenue grew to Euro 2.66 billion in 2023 powered by volume growth and superior mix.
Bajaj Auto also makes motorcycles for British premium brand Triumph from the same Chakan plant. Here too, the two companies worked jointly for rolling out models with a 400cc engine.