Nearly eight years after it sold its two-wheeler business to Mahindra and Mahindra, the Pune-based Kinetic Group has re-entered two-wheeler space with the launch of three MV Agusta branded superbikes in the Indian market ranging from ₹16.78 lakh to ₹35.71 lakh.
While two bikes, the F4 and Brutale 1090, are being brought in as fully built units, the F3 800 will be assembled from semi-knocked down kits at Kinetic Engineering’s plant in Ahmednagar. A fourth bike – the Brutale 800 — is undergoing homologation and is due to be introduced, also as a SKD model, early next year.
Kinetic, which has entered into an exclusive marketing and distribution arrangement for India and Sri Lanka with the Italy-based Agusta brand, expects to sell around 300 units this year and grow to 600-700 units in the next two to three years. This would represent around 10 per cent market share in the ₹10-lakh plus bike segment that stands at 7,000-odd units, said Ajinkya Firodia, MD, MV Agusta India.
The bikes will be retailed through exclusive dealerships that are being set up under the new Motoroyale brand. The first of these sales, spares and service dealerships, is being launched in Pune, and will be followed by five more at Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad during the year. Another six will be set up next year, said Judah Immanuel Sangaran, Far East Country Manager for MV Agusta Motor S.p.A.
Kinetic has invested ₹5 crore in setting up an assembly line at the Kinetic Engineering’s Ahmednagar plant, making this one of two plants outside of Italy where assembling of the bike happens.
“We want to go from SKD operations to CKD operations,” Firodia said, adding that Kinetic also plans to make the Motoroyale a multi-brand retail outlet.
“There are lots of small superbike brands that are not present in India. We may look at bringing some of these in,” he said.