Triumph Motorcycles to setup manufacturing plant in Karnataka

Triumph Motorcycles, the iconic British motorcycle brand, is all set to open a plant facility at Karnataka. It would be the third facility globally after the UK and Thailand.

Triumph had announced the news at the 11th Auto Expo in Delhi, which also showcased its model range for India which included the parallel-twin, Bonneville, the iconic naked roadsters Speed Triple and Street Triple, the off-roader Tiger 800XC, class-leading supersport bike Daytona 675 and the cruisers Storm and Rocket III.

Triumph has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karnataka Government about a month back for 40 acres of land at Narasapur in Kolar district of the state. The Indian plant will help Triumph price its models more competitively in the world’s second-largest two wheeler market. One of the pre-requisites for the location had been proximity to a port for both importing completely knocked-down (CKD) kits and later exporting bikes, if required.

An official at Triumph Motorcycles stated, “We are gearing up to commence our Indian operations at the earliest. Of the seven motorcycles that will be entering the market, we will be assembling four of our bike models in India. We will be looking at setting up the CKD assembly facility in a propitious location,”

Projected ex-showroom prices for the Indian market:

Bonneville INR 5.50 Lakh

Street Triple 675 INR 5.75 Lakh

Daytona 675 INR 7.00 Lakh

Speed Triple INR 8.00 Lakh

Tiger 800XC INR 11.40 Lakh

Storm INR 17.00 Lakh

Rocket III Roadster INR 22.00 Lakh

The website says, currently there are no Triumph dealerships open in India and the plan is to have dealers operational by July/August 2012 and sales/ bookings to start after that. Triumph is also looking to appoint dealers at Delhi/ Mumbai and Bangalore. This will be followed by dealerships in Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai, Hyderabad, Cochin and Goa over the next year.