Classic Legends’ Yezdi brand will make a comeback to India this year in the pre Diwali period; to have several commonalities with Jawa motorcycles
Classic Legends brought back the iconic Jawa brand to India in late 2018 with three motorcycles and it has been successful with it to some degree. According to a recent report that emerged on the internet, Yezdi will also return to the Indian market in the third quarter of this financial year (October to December 2021) and we were to first to broke this news on its comeback late last year.
Due to the ongoing health crisis, it is worth noting that the launch has been delayed to this festive season as “pre Diwali” period has been the reported timeframe. Classic Legends, owned partly by Mahindra, is also said to have developed a new 650 cc powertrain and it will be used to power the motorcycles under the BSA brand.
The revival of the Yezdi is an integral part of Classic Legends’ “survival in terms of scaling up the business volumes and that of the vendors and the dealers while improving their viability“. Back in the day, Yezdi gained plenty of attention courtesy of the Road King, Oil King, Classic, CL-II, Monarch, Deluxe, 350 and so on.
Just as with Jawa, Classic Legends will try to evoke the nostalgic feeling amongst customers with its new crop of motorcycles on its resurrection. Classic Legends managed to record 20,801 unit sales in FY2021 excluding volumes from Telanga, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh according to FADA data. While Classic Legends ironed out the production issues and reduced the waiting period, the health crisis did come as a hammer blow for the entire industry.
Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto and Farm Sectors, M&M, admitted that the business has been down over the last couple of months due to the reemergence of the health crisis. Thus, the return of Yezdi could turn the tables around in Classic Legends’ favour as it will help in adding in more volumes and expand the lineup.
The same 293 cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled DOHC engine found in the Jawa Classic and Jawa 42 will be utilised by Yezdi along with sharing components to keep the production costs down. The Yezdi branded motorcycles will be produced in the Pithampur plant where the Jawas are being rolled out as well.
A dedicated “consumer-facing team” has been established to work exclusively on the Yezdi brand. It will be interesting to see how the Yezdi motorcycles will be positioned against Royal Enfield’s range of 350 cc bikes as well as Jawa’s existing series.