BMW Motorrad announced the G310R and G310GS as global motorcycles, with focus on emerging markets. Both these motorcycles are made in India by their partner TVS Motor Company. In spite of this, India was probably one of the last markets to receive the motorcycle.
Earlier, enthusiasts were unhappy because of the bikes not getting launched in India. Now with the bikes launched, most of them are still unhappy. The reason – price is too high.
Launched in the US last year, the BMW G310R retails for $4,750, which is about Rs 3.27 lakh as per today’s currency exchange rate. G310GS on the other hand, is priced at $5,695 which is about Rs 3.93 lakhs. Now, the interesting part to note here is that US gets the G310R and G310GS from India as CBU. So the US rates are inclusive of import taxes.
In India on the other hand, the motorcycles are priced at Rs 3.78 lakh and Rs 4.35 lakh on road (excluding road side assistance, side stand). So how did India get a made in India bike priced higher than its export-spec variant? Well, there is no clear answer.
Other interesting point to note is that in the US, KTM Duke 390 retails for $4,999 (Rs 3.44 lakh). This means the KTM Duke 390 is expensive in the US, as compared to the G310R. On the other hand, in India, the KTM Duke 390 retails for Rs 2.65 lakh on road ($3,840). KTM Duke 390 too, like the BMW G310R, is made in India.
As per the same pricing strategy, BMW G310R should have been cheaper than the KTM Duke 390 in India. But that is not the case. Here it is about Rs 1.1 lakh more expensive. It is not clear as to why such a pricing strategy was adopted by BMW India. It could be that the brand wants to maintain their premium status, and only have consumers from a select segment, instead of attracting the attention of all who in the entry level segment.
This could have failed on multiple ends. If the G310R was priced like D390, it would have resulted in more sales. But, unlike KTM India, BMW India does not have a widespread network to provide sales and support at the moment. This could have ended up with bad customer experience. Probably they wanted to keep sales low, and customer satisfaction high, which is why such a pricing was adopted.
