While cars and bikes are getting more expensive in India owing to the government rolling back excise duty benefits, Kawasaki has made an announcement that should delight customers. The bike maker has cut the price of its naked sportsbike, the Z800, by Rs 50,000. It is now priced at Rs 7.35 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune), and this price will be valid till end of March 2015.
According to the Japanese manufacturer, the price reduction on the Z800 is owing to a drop in the cost of production at its Thailand plant, which is where the bike is manufactured before being brought to India. The price cut is limited only to the Z800, because all other Kawasaki models are manufactured in Japan. Kawasaki has also added that this benefit on the Z800 can vary depending on local taxation.
The Kawasaki Z800 is directly rivalled by the Triumph Street Triple, but it not only holds a performance advantage over the Triumph, but is now also considerably less expensive than the Street Triple. In fact, the Z800 is now the most affordable in-line, four-cylinder motorcycle on sale in India.
India Bike Week 2015 on February 20-21
India Bike Week or IBW will take place in Vagator, North Goa on the February 20 and 21st, this year. The event will follow the Harley-Davidson HOG rally that will take place on February 19th. This time, the organisers are expecting a crowd of 12,000 motorcycling enthusiasts to join the festivities.
There will be about 100 exotic bikes including vintage and classic, modified motorcycles and rare motorcycles on display for two days at the venue. London's iconic Ace Cafe will also set up shop here, lending IBW an old school theme from the 1930s.
The IBW will also hold other exciting biking events like the 1/4th mile drag strip, a dirt track challenge, the all India Stunt Championship finale and the IBW Bike Build Off. More events include the bikini bike wash, skateboarding and BMX, dyno wars, bicycle jousting and many more.
Legendary motorcycle travellers like Grant and Susan Johnson who have travelled the world for 11 years on their motorcycle will be at IBW to share their story. Rashmi Thambe, who has travelled extensively across Europe and USA on her motorcycle, and is also the editor of Global Women Who Ride project will also be present. Legends such as Avinash Thadani, Kedar, Sangeetha Jairam and Gokulram will also attend IBW to share their inspiring stories.
Bands like Blackstratblues, BLOT, DJ Sa vs Sa, Siddharth Basrur and Ox7gen will be seen performing for the crowd. The two day entry fee for the IBW costs Rs 3,000. The organisers are also offering a camping package at Rs 2,703 for two nights. Bikers can also avail from different accommodation packages going up to Rs 8,000 a night.
The India Bike Week is one of the biggest bike events that takes place globally, and is a must see for biking enthusiasts to get a taste of the ever evolving biking culture in India. For further information log on to: indiabikeweek.in.
Audi sees record sales in 2014
While last year did see a slow-moving Indian auto market, the luxury car segment still saw plenty of action with a number of significant launches by the prominent luxury players present here.
From entry level offerings to compact ones and even top of-theline flagship cars, the competition in this segment heated up quite a bit. The top two performers – Audi and Mercedes – had a neck-in-neck fight for the crown, with the former trumping the latter on total sales and Merc beating Audi with respect to year-onyear growth. Here's a look at the numbers. Ingolstadt-based Audi seems to have closed 2014 with a strong punctuation.
After Mercedes recently announced that the year 2014 saw its highest sales ever in India (10,201 units), Audi has announced that its total sales for the year stand at, a personal best, 10,851 units. Although the difference is not even a thousand units (650), it still is a very big margin, considering that it isn’t a mass market segment.
This was the first timeMercedes clocked more than 10,000 units sold, while for Audi, this was its second consecutive year of 10,000 or more units sold. Compared to 2013, Audi saw an improvement of more than eight percent in year-on- year sales, while Mercedes saw a growth of 13 percent.
Both manufacturers have been pretty aggressive when it comes to product launches in India. Audi’s latest launch was the A3 Cabriolet, and Mercedes is all set to introduce its answer to the A3 sedan – the CLA – very soon.
With such heated competition setting the tone, we presume the year ahead will see a lot more action and excitement at the premium end of the market.
