Kawasaki Assessing Local Assembly Of Engines

As per Autocar India, the Pune-based bike manufacturer is looking to localise the assembly of its engines in the country. Both the 300cc and 650cc parallel twin, liquid cooled, four-stroke mills power five out of 15 models being sold in India.

The 300cc unit powers the Kawasaki Ninja 300, while the 650cc unit powers the Kawasaki Ninja 650, Z650 and the outgoing ER-6n motorcycle.

The above models are locally assembled which are imported as completely knocked down (CKD) kits and they form the company's majority chunk of sales.

The Japanese bike manufacturer might begin with smaller components and eventually lead to more critical parts in the coming future. The Kawasaki Z650 continues to be model carrying the maximum local content among all other models.

The Z650 has a localisation rate of 40 percent, the Ninja 300, Ninja 650, ER-6n and other 650cc models have localisation rate of 25-30 percent.

The move could be attributed to various OEMs adopting localisation and CKD operations. Much of this credit goes to Bajaj Auto by pushing local manufacturing and retailing of KTM models in India.

Other OEMs include India Yamaha Motor, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India, Harley-Davidson Motor Company India, Triumph Motorcycle India and DSK Motowheels (Benelli and Hyosung) have taken the localisation route.

Kawasaki introduced its Ninja 250 at the 2008 Auto Expo and is looking to position their motorcycles in the right price bracket aggressively.

The mid-size segment in two-wheelers which constitute the 250cc-500cc motorcycles is gaining precedence with new entrants making a beeline to offer their products.

TVS Motor Company and BMW Motorrad will be another new entrant who is gearing up to launch its BMW G 310R naked sports bike by the end of 2017.