Kawasaki opens Chennai showroom

Kawasaki proposes to accelerate its market presence here with more models and expansion of dealer network. The Japanese bike maker launched its first showroom in Chennai on Saturday, which is the fourth in the country after Pune, Delhi and Bangalore. Inaugurating the showroom, Shigeto Nishikawa, Deputy Managing Director of India Kawasaki Motors Pvt Ltd, said the market for super bikes in India has been growing at an average 40 per cent year on year. “As we expect huge demand for our super bikes in this region, we hope to grow faster than the market here with our proposed launches and (dealer) network expansion.” Kawasaki, which launched its first showroom in Pune last year, has so far sold close to 250 super bikes (bikes above 650 cc) in the country, and hopes grow at a faster clip and double the number in the current year. At present it has five models in 800, 1000 and 1400 cc segments, priced in the range of ₹9.15 lakh to ₹19 lakh, with its entry level Z800 (800 cc) being the fastest selling model. “It accounts for almost half of our volumes here, and we plan to introduce a new colour variant of this model to push sales further,” Nishikawa said. So far, this model comes only in black colour. Refusing to give out any details, Nishikawa said Kawasaki also planned to bring in a few more models “very soon”. While Kawasaki has been selling its Ninja 200 and Ninja 650 through Bajaj outlets, it brought in its high-end bikes (in the category of 800cc-1400cc) as completely built units from Japan, and has been selling them through its own dealerships since September 2013.