Bajaj and Kawasaki will continue their co-operation across rest of the world; India Kawasaki will handle business in domestic market
Bajaj Auto and Kawasaki are finally ending their 8 year old alliance in India on 1st April this year. With this, India Kawasaki will be responsible for selling after servicing of the Kawasaki bikes in the country. While the alliance is ending in the country, two bike manufacturers will continue their co-operative relative across rest of the world for their current and future business.
The two companies have maintained an 8 year long association through the Bajaj Probiking network since 2009, which provided sales and after sales servicing to the customers in across the country. Now the Bajaj Probiking is showing more and more interest toward the KTM bikes, which have proved to be very popular machines for the young riders across the country. Interestingly, Bajaj Auto has a 48% stake in the Austrian bike manufacturer company.
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Both the Bajaj and Kawasaki have maintained a partnership for decades. The Japanese bike manufacturer first introduced its models in India back in 1980s, and they were launched through its alliance with Bajaj. During that time, apart from Bajaj-Kawasaki, several other Indo-Japanese partnerships were present in the country’s two-wheeler market, which included TVS-Suzuki, Hero-Honda and Escorts-Yamaha. These partnerships literally changed the scenarios of the two-wheeler industry in the country.
Kawasaki’s first bike in India was the Kawasaki-Bajaj KB100, a two-stroke bike, sold between 1986 and 1996. Later came the KB125 with an all-aluminium engine, which began selling in 1996 and it too were sold under the Kawasaki-Bajaj badge. Comparatively, the Bajaj-KTM partnership is new and it has proved to be very attractive for the Indian market.
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In a statement Bajaj Probiking’s president Mr. Amit Nandi has said that Probiking has progressively converted its network to be KTM dealerships. He also said that it intends to focus on the KTM brand. But he also mentioned that Bajaj will continue its co-operative business relation with Kawasaki across rest of the world.