Benelli new launches include TRK 502 Adv and Leoncino 500 Scrambler along with three model year updates
Benelli has officially announced its re-entry to India with Hyderabad based Adishwar Auto Ride International (AARI), a subsidiary of Mahavir Group. The Italian manufacturer was struggling in India as previous partner DSK Motowheels had financial problems which forced them to delay launch of new models.
The company has also stated its new aggressive product strategy and they are planning to launch 7 models in India, among them three will be updates for current products. The Italian manufacturer is going to introduce TRK 502 Adventure Tourer and Leoncino 500 Scrambler in India by September.
Benelli will also introduce TRK 502 X, which is focused towards off-roading and Leoncino 500 Trail. These products are currently undergoing homologation process and it will be completed by the end of September. Then the company will re-introduce TNT 300 (naked), TNT 302 R (fully faired) and TNT 600i by the end of October.
The Italian manufacturer will replace TNT 302 R by 302 S, which was revealed last year and it will be launched by the end of this year or early 2019. In this transition phase, Benelli will drop TNT 25 as it was the entry level model of the brand and TNT 600 GT tourer will be replaced by new TRK 502 and Leoncino 500 Scrambler.
Benelli is planning to launch 12 models by the end of 2019 and among them 7 will be launched by March. The company is going to set up a new manufacturing plant at Medical, Pochampally, Hyderabad. Initially, the company is going to assemble bikes with CKD kits coming from China and the plant has the capacity to produce 7,000 units per year.
During the second phase of development, Benelli will expand the plant to 20 acres from initial 3 acres and total capacity will be increased to 10,000 units per year. The plant will play a key role in the growth of Benelli as they will localize products to keep price down. The company is planning to add 4-5 dealerships every quarter and they currently have 18 dealerships.
Benelli currently has 21 percent market share in premium segment and they are planning to increase it to 30 percent by the end of 2021 with annual sales between 2,500 and 3,000 units. In future, the Italian manufacturer is going to expand the lineup with new 250 cc bikes along with retro theme 400cc bikes and higher cc performance models to take on established rivals.