Piaggio India showcased the Aprilia RS 150 at the Auto Expo 2018 in February last year. In a new development, a unit of the Aprilia GPR 150, which is a similar motorcycle, has been spotted at a dealer's meet in Goa by a reader of Zigwheels.
The Aprilia GPR 150 is manufactured in collaboration with Foshan-based Zongshen. Rumours abound that the India-spec Aprilia RS 150 would be based on the Chinese motorcycle, with Piaggio India planning to source CKD kits of the Yamaha YZF-R15-adversary from China and assemble them at its Ahmednagar-based facility.
Compared to the Aprilia RS 150, the GPR 150 features a more conventional fairing, different graphics, a larger tailpiece, and a more curvaceous fuel tank. While the rider seat is the same as that of the European sibling, the pillion seat is wider. Furthermore, the mirrors and the switchgear are different, too.
Piaggio India had earlier revealed that the Aprilia RS 150 is powered by a 150cc, single-cylinder, liquid-cooled engine that outputs 18 PS at 10,000 rpm and 14 Nm at 7,500 rpm. Incidentally, the China-spec GPR 150 offers similar performance figures but the company officials are said to have indicated that the power figures for the Indian version would be bumped up to help the new model take on the Yamaha YZF-R15 V3.0.
In September 2018, we reported that the Aprilia RS 150 won't launch in India before 2020. While the Aprilia GPR 150 seen in the spy image looks production-ready, IAB has learned that it was brought to India for 'internal display' and that the bikemaker has no imminent plans of launching the model in the local market.
[Source - zigwheels.com]
