India Kawasaki rolls out Versys 1000

India Kawasaki Motors (IKM) has rolled out its globally popular one-litre tourer, the Versys 1000 in the local market today.

The bike, which will be imported into India as completely built units (CBUs) from Japan, is powered by Kawasaki’s reputed liquid-cooled, four-stroke, in-line four-cylinder, 1043cc engine. Mated with a six speed transmission, this engine is capable of churning out a maximum power output of close to 120bhp.

As a CBU, the bike will cost Rs 1290,000 (ex-showroom, Pune). The Versys 1000 becomes the sixth superbike in IKM’s portfolio with other five models being the Ninja 1000, Ninja ZX-10R, Ninja ZX-14R, Z1000 and Z800, all of which are imported into India as CBUs.

The other four models – Ninja 300, Ninja 650, ER-6n and Z250, which are positioned in the burgeoning midsized bike segment in the local market, are imported into India as completely knocked down units (CKDs) and assembled here. Interestingly, while the recently launched Z250 has a localisation rate of close to 40 percent, the bigger 650cc models use local content of up to 25-30 percent.

IKM has also inaugurated its showroom in Kolkata today, its fifth standalone showroom in India. Versys 1000, like all other superbikes, will be available only at Kawasaki’s standalone showrooms across India (Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata).

Yoshitaka Tamura, managing director, IKM, said: “We would first thank our partner Bajaj Auto for the continuous support in setting up this showroom. The opening of Kawasaki showroom in Kolkata will help us in further expanding our business in the north eastern region in India.”

Shigeto Nishikawa, deputy  managing director, IKM, said, “We have launched superbikes ranging from the Ninja ZX-14R, ZX-10R, Ninja1000, Z1000, Z800 and now Versys1000. We have also eagerly absorbed feedback and valuable insight from customers and put every effort to raise ourselves to be a higher and superb level of service provider to customers. We have recently offered a special price for the Z800 till the end of March 2015 due to the effort taken by our Indian colleagues. With those factors considered, we are targeting to grow by 50 percent over the last year in this year.”

In India, the Kawasaki Versys 1000 will directly compete with Triumph’s Tiger Explorer XC (in-line, three-cylinder, 1215cc; Rs 18,75,000 ex-showroom, Delhi) and Suzuki’s V-Strom 1000 ABS (V-twin, 1037cc; Rs 14,95,000 ex-showroom, Pune).