Triumph to sell in India

Triumph is following Ducati, BMW, and Harley-Davidson to India.

With bike sales slipping in traditional Western markets, especially North America, the lads at Hinckley are the latest manufacturer to set their eyes on sales opportunities in Asia. And who can blame them? India sold over 9 million new motorcycles last year, and reports from the country always shows bike dealerships setting new sales records.

There is a catch to those numbers, of course. The majority of bikes sold in India are small machines, often around 125cc, and Triumph doesn’t have any machine in that range. However, nothing’s stopping them from developing a new machine for that market, like KTM did with the 200cc version of the Duke. In fact, rumours were spreading as far back as January that Triumph was working on a 125cc project, although the company denied it. Right now, they’re just saying they plan to sell six or eight models from their lineup in India – we bet that means no Rocket III, at least for now.

There’s no word yet on whether Triumph will build their bikes in India, or import them from existing factories in the UK and Thailand. Assembling the bikes in-country would get them around some hefty import taxes, so don’t be surprised if the company’s next announcement is a factory on the Indian sub-continent.