New Delhi: Bajaj Auto’s managing director and executive officer, Rajiv Bajaj, has confirmed in an interview that the downsized 350cc Triumph models will make their way to the market by April of this year. It had been reported earlier by Autocar India that Bajaj was developing sub-350cc KTM and Triumph bikes.
Following recent developments, Rajiv Bajaj has confirmed that the downsized 350 cc Triumph bikes will be launched in April. This will be quite profitable for the company as Triumph’s entire small-capacity range is above the 350cc segment and attracts a higher 40 per cent tax.
In contrast, the sub-350 cc models will fall under a lower tax bracket and attract 18 per cent GST, helping them to be priced more competitively.
The 350cc engine will not be made from ground zero but will be a downsized version of the existing 400 cc unit. For now, the specifics are under wraps, but the new engine will reportedly come with a smaller bore, bringing the displacement just below the 350 cc mark.
The downsizing is expected to result in an almost 3-5 bhp drop in performance output compared to the current unit. The Triumph’s 399-cc single-cylinder liquid-cooled engine, for reference, makes 40 bhp and 37.5 Nm of torque in most models, and in Thruxton it produces 2 bhp more. It is likely that a similar strategy might be applied with the KTM 390 range and its own Dominar 400 and NS400Z, but there is no given timeline for this as of now.