MV Agusta India receives encouraging response

MV Agusta India, a newly formed unit within the umbrella of iconic and ultra-luxury motorcycle brand from Italy MV Agusta, has garnered an attention-grabbing response from its potential customers, say company officials.

The local unit, which is mainly operated and controlled by officials at Kinetic Group, known veterans in the two-wheeler business since 1972, under its upcoming retail chain named MotoRoyale, has already sold six MV Agusta motorcycles. In addition to that the company has also received close to 180 enquiries asking about the availability of these super-premium models.

Talking to Autocar Professional, Ajinkya Firodia, managing director, MV Agusta India disclosed, “We have already sold 6 super-premium MV Agusta motorcycles even before we started our retail operations, beginning with Pune. We have five more exclusive stores coming up within next three months that will cover up all major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Evaluating our local presence post the setup of these outlets, the iconic stature that MV Agusta as a brand commands, their ultra-luxury products, the brand perception among the big bike communities (for MV Agusta), the growth in this class of premium motorcycles and others have helped us estimate that we should be able to sell close to 300 units within the first year of our operations.”

“For what we understand as of now is that the F4 has gained instant popularity among our customers,” he added.

The company official also revealed that MotoRoyale has sold two units of F4 RR, three units of F4 and one unit of Brutale 1090 model. One among the two F4 RRs sold by MV Agusta India belongs to the DSKBenelli boss Shirish Kulkarni.

The top-end model, F4 RR, which is powered by an advanced four-cylinder, short-stroke, 998cc, 201hp (or 198bhp) engine, is priced at Rs 35.71 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune). Other models on sale in India that represent this class (engine-configuration wise) are Kawasaki’s four-cylinder, 998cc, 198bhp Ninja H2;Yamaha’s four-cylinder, 998cc, 197bhp YZF-R1M; Honda’s inline four, 999cc, 176bhp CBR1000RR; Suzuki’s four-cylinder, 999cc, 186bhp GSX-R1000 (ABS) and possibly others.

While the F4 also comes with the same engine, it, however, delivers a peak power of 192bhp. This model comes with a price tag of Rs 26.87 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune).

Although the engine remains the same across the F4 models, the global company website comprehensively highlights the difference in the state of engine settings that result into a sharper performance of the top-end F4 model.

“On the F4 RR the peak rev limit has been raised to 14,000 rpm.The con (connecting) rods on the F4 RR are made of titanium, a solution more akin to a GP racer than a production machine, giving improved strength and lightness; the engine also features a rebalanced crankshaft.The short-stroke inline four-cylinder engine is available in two power configurations: on the F4 it reaches 195hp, while the F4 RR puts out a jaw-dropping 200.8hp,” quotes MV Agusta’sofficial website.

On the other hand, the naked street model, four-cylinder, 1078cc, 142bhp Brutale 1090 is priced at Rs 20.10 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune).

The company officially announced its commercial retail operations on May 11 revealing three models – F4, F3 (three-cylinder, 800cc) and Brutale 1090. However, its exclusive showroom (in Pune) will soon have F4 RR and Brutale 1090 RR as well. These five models will comprise MV Agusta India’s first range of superbikes.

Interestingly, besides being classified among the existing conventional motorcycle categories such as sports bikes, naked-street, adventure-tourers and others, cost-wise, the models from MV Agusta will roughly belong to the category that retails for more than Rs 10 lakhs in the local market.