The city-based two and three wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor on Wednesday launched its Apache RR310 motorcycle, marking its foray into the super-premium segment. The company had tied up with BMW Motorrad in April 2013 to produce motorcycles under the sub-500cc segment.
According to TVS Motor Company, President and Chief Executive Officer, KN Radhakrishnan, the new motorcycle shares a ‘common platform’ between the two companies.
“This shares the common platform (between TVS Motor and BMW Motorrad).. The project (cost) for the development of this would be around Rs 400 crore,” he told reporters here. In April 2013, TVS Motor announced a strategic partnership with BMW Motorrad to manufacture sub-500cc bikes for domestic and global markets. TVS Motor invested about 20 million euros in the alliance. Radhakrishnan said, the premium bike segment was around 14 per cent (bikes in the 150cc to 500cc) of the total motorcycle category in the country and this particular segment was growing at 10 per cent every year. After launching the Apache RR310 motorcycle, here, the company's Joint Managing Director, Sudarshan Venu said they would look at selling 10,000 units in the next one year.
“It will happen in a phased manner,” he said to a query on whether the company would look at shipping the bike to overseas markets. The motorcycle equipped with twin projector head lamps is the first fully faired motorcycle offered by TVS Motor. The bike is priced at Rs 2.05 lakh (ex-showroom), Radhakrishnan said, adding the pricing would vary from ‘State to State.’
The motorcycle would be hit the road by end of this month, he said. To another query, Venu said the company has enough capacity to produce the motorcycle at its facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The company would also be launching an upgraded variant of the existing Apache 160cc ‘very soon’, Venu said, but declined to elaborate.