The premium two-wheeler market in India has witnessed gradual shift in purchasing trends with the presence of many global brands, such as BMW Motorrad, Suzuki, Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Harley Davidson and Hyosung. At present, the domestic sports and cruiser bike fanatics have a number of interesting options to choose from, which was not the scene few years back.
The top-end and high performance sports and cruiser bikes are usually offered to local consumers at a price brackets cohering with those of executive saloons and imported Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in the country. However, in spite of some extremely exorbitant retail values, the top bike makers are continuously working towards expanding their market presence on Indian turf.
The Indian arm of BMW Motorrad, a subdivision of German premium luxury auto maker BMW, offers several expensive motorcycles to domestic two-wheeler enthusiasts. The company's line up of celebrated high-end sports bikes is available within a price bracket of Rs. 18-26 lakhs in the country. BMW's super sports bike HP2 is the top-end model and carries a price tag of Rs. 25.7 lakhs in premium two-wheeler segment of the Indian auto market.
Further, Harley Davidson, the iconic American cruiser bike maker, has some exorbitant models in its Indian portfolio as well. The Harley Davidson FLH range of cruiser bikes start from Rs. 24 lakhs and goes on till close to Rs. 35.5 lakhs, which makes it the most expensive two-wheeler available in Indian auto market. The legendary American bike maker has several interesting products like XL 833, XL 1200, FXD, Dyna, FLST, VRSCDX and FLH, all of which are offered to local bike enthusiasts between price tags of around Rs. 5-36 lakhs. However, both BMW Motorrad and Harley Davidson can be dubbed as exotic bike makers and therefore, it will take some more time for them to completely establish themselves in the country.
Japanese auto makers like Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda account for the bulk of sales recorded in the Indian premium two-wheeler market. Yamaha's FZ1 street-based super sports bike is one of the meanest looking products in the segment and is offered to local consumers at a price tag close to Rs. 10 lakhs. The other mesmerising products in the super bike segment available in the country are Suzuki's Hayabusa and Intruder, Honda's CB1000R and CBR1000RR, along with Hyosung's GT series and ST7. Ducati, the iconic Italian super sports bike maker, is working hard on bolstering its Indian presence and has many of its cherished products in the domestic market like Monster, Multistrada and HyperMotorad.
Evidently, the sales recorded in the segment are small as domestic premium two-wheeler market caters to an extremely small fraction of buyers. The premium bike segment of Indian auto market looks promising and possesses great potential in terms of sales and demand for high performance two-wheelers among domestic enthusiasts. The purchasing capability of Indians is definitely on the rise and investing in super sports bikes for individual recreational purposes seems certain in future. The presence of Ducati, BMW Motorrad, Harley Davidson, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki among others, underline the fact that premium two-wheeler segment is going through a maturing phase and holds great promise for the manufacturers.
