Japanese bike maker Kawasaki is parting ways from Bajaj Auto Limited and KTM in India. Though it is not clear yet why the split is going to take place, it is possible that Kawasaki was not happy with the way their sales and service were being handled. Also, the company is now more than equipped to handle their own sales and service outlets.
For the past 8 years, Bajaj Auto was the authorized entity to take care of Kawasaki India sales and service in the country. But from 1st April 2017, Kawasaki India will offer the same via their newly appointed network of 12 dealers.
The split has resulted in Kawasaki outlets being reduced to just 12 from 160 – as outlets are only located in Tier I cities exclusively. Yes, this is a much smaller network than what they had when they had their alliance with Bajaj. But the alliance was also dissolving their brand image to an extent. Bajaj had not setup exclusive Kawasaki India stores, in fact they were offering sales and service of Kawasaki Motorcycles in India at their Probiking stores or at the KTM stores.
At the start this did not seem to be a problem, but with KTM and Bajaj entering higher cc segment (Bajaj and KTM has plans to offer superbikes up to the 1 liter category in India), it came as direct rival to Kawasaki motorcycles. This could have triggered the Bajaj Kawasaki alliance split. And then there was also the issue with SNK Palm Beach dealership.
The split in sales and service tie up will however not affect Kawasaki’s use of the Bajaj Auto’s Akurdi plant for assembly of motorcycles upto 650cc displacement. Also, it will not affect the deliveries of Kawasaki motorcycles in India. The transition will be done in the smoothest possible manner. Below is the list of new Kawasaki India dealerships, and their contact address, emails and phone nos.
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