Regular followers would know that the Husqvarna motorcycles – the Svartpilen 401 and the Vitpilen 401 have been spotted in India on various occasions. A report from December 2018 claimed that the India launch of the Husqvarna Svartpilen 401 and the Vitpilen 401 has been delayed due to the process of setting up the assembly line and the selection of vendors. The report further added that the launch has been pushed to 2020. However, Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto has revealed some new details.
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Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the launch of the new campaign 'The world's favourite Indian,' Bajaj said Husqvarna could become even bigger than KTM. Bajaj confirmed that the Husqvarna brand will arrive in India in 2019 and that the company can launch as many as half a dozen products in the country. While Bajaj spoke about the product strategy and confirmed the arrival of the Husqvarna brand in 2019, he remained tight-lipped about the exact launch timeline or the models that could come to India.
In the past, we have seen the Husqvarna 401 twins in India. The Husqvarna 401 twins would be based on the KTM 390 Duke platform, but they would feature different styling and arrive at a premium over the Austrian motorcycle that retails for INR 2.44 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The list of shared components includes trellis frame, suspension setup, and disc brakes, all of which would be sourced from the KTM 390 Duke. Regarding styling, the Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 is a neo-retro café racer, while the Svartpilen 401 is a modern scrambler.
A 373.2 cc liquid-cooled engine would deliver 43.5 bhp of power and 37 Nm of peak torque, and come mated to a six-speed transmission. Features like a slipper clutch, ride by wire throttle, dual-channel ABS and a fully digital instrument cluster will come as standard.
While the production-ready motorcycles were seen early last year, spy images revealed completely camouflaged test mules in December. The company is most likely testing the BS-VI engine test bikes. As reported, the test mules were spotted with KTM sourced alloy wheels, instead of wire-spokes.
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Husqvarna's global range includes products in Enduro, Motocross, Supermoto, Svartpilen and the Vitpilen segments.
