Bajaj Auto and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, which have marketing collaborations in India and the Philippines, are now taking their partnership to Indonesia, under which select Bajaj products will be assembled at Kawasaki’s facility and distributed through its network.
The first product that will be taken to that market is the Pulsar 200 NS, and this is scheduled to happen during this financial year. “Kawasaki has made some minor improvements in the motorcycle,” said Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto. He added that after Indonesia, Brazil and Asean markets were also on the partnership’s radar.
He was speaking after the launch of the Kawasaki Ninja 300 in the Indian market. This is the fourth product in this range to be marketed in India by Bajaj, and since its debut here around four years ago, 3,000 units of the Ninja have so far been sold.
Indian content
The newest Ninja, that will come from Thailand as a CKD unit and be assembled at Bajaj’s Chakan plant, has some content such as headlights and speedometer sourced from India. Kawasaki is preparing to source suspensions also for their products.
Yuji Horiuchi, head of India Kawasaki Motors, said that the current level of Indian content stood at 10 per cent, and the company was looking to expand it further.
Bajaj Auto already has a small assembly plant in Indonesia where semi-knocked down operations can be undertaken, and around two years ago there were reports that Bajaj planned to invest further to enable CKD operations.
However, a senior official said the company had not made much headway in penetrating the Indonesian market, and hence, a marketing collaboration with an existing partner, who was successful in the country, was the best option. Products will be sold with only the sub-brand name (eg Pulsar) prominently displayed and the Kawasaki name less obviously located.
NINJA 300 launched
Bajaj Auto, a distributor of Kawasaki Bikes in India, has launched the Kawasaki Ninja 300 in the Indian market.
The new motorcycle will be sold through Probiking showrooms. It is the fourth of the Kawasaki Ninja range of products launched in India.
Priced at Rs 3.5 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), it replaces the Kawasaki Ninja 250 R launched last August.
With a maximum power of 39PS and a maximum torque of 27 NM, the Ninja 300 has a host of features from Kawasaki’s superbikes like the ZX-10R and ZX-14R.