Further evidence that the Indian motorcycle market is poised to embrace larger cc motorcycles comes with Kawasaki announcing that it is to increase its manufacturing capacity there and commence local production of high-displacement Ninja 1000s.
It is planned for the new production lines to go into operation around September, following the introduction of production equipment – this is additional to the 250–650 cc models currently being manufactured by India Kawasaki Motors (IKM) in India.
India is now the largest motorcycle market worldwide, with FY 2016 sales reaching approximately 17.6 million units, among which about 680,000 were medium and large displacement motorcycles with engine displacements of 250cc or higher. As the Indian economy grows, Kawasaki says it expects to see continued expansion of the market for medium and high displacement leisure-use motorcycles.
Kawasaki initially established IKM in 2010 inside the Bajaj Auto Ltd. (BAL) Akurdi plant facilities in Pune, contracting out production of Kawasaki brand motorcycles and utilising BAL's sales network to sell products. In 2013, IKM began its own production of Kawasaki products and established an independent sales and after-sales service network in India, steadily laying the foundations for its motorcycle business in the domestic Indian market.
Following the start of operations at the new IKM plant (production capacity 16,000 units/year), operations will cease at the former plant (production capacity 5,000 units/year) and all production activities will be relocated to the new facility on a 10,300 sqm site.
