The first TVS-BMW joint venture product has been underway for a quite some time; we have seen lots of spy pics of what is popularly known as K03. Today BMW has revealed the production ready model of their first quarter liter single cylinder motorcycle after their 1948 R24. The roadster is coined as “G310R”, entirely designed and developed by BMW the G310R will be produced by TVS Motors in their Indian facility at Bangalore.The Joint venture between the TVS and BMW will work almost same as we have seen the Bajaj-KTM duos. The international partner will bring the technology including the designing and development of the product to the Indian partner. The manufacturing facility will also be established with close association of the international partner to assure the quality of the product. The then produced model will be branded as the international partner’s and will be further exported to the rest of the world including the sale in India.
On the other hand the Indian partner will get the technical knowhow of the product and can further use that expertise in producing their own product based on same technology by their own brand name. This can be understood by knowing, how KTM has developed their Duke and RC series bikes (Duke 200 and RC200) in India by using the manufacturing facilities of Bajaj. In return Bajaj has acquired the technical knowhow of KTM and used them to manufacture their own product (Pulsar 200NS and RS200).Similar relation will be shared by TVS and BMW for the small capacity motorcycles, the G310R is the first in the slew and the bike will be made in India at the TVS facility but will be sold under BMW marquee as BMW brand. Later TVS will also bring their product based on same technology with their branding and that will be surely sold as a little cheaper product than the German counterpart.
The BMW G310R is a roadster based on the design philosophy of BMW’s S1000R and R1200R, the bike is featured with newly developed 313cc single cylinder DOHC engine with 4-valve setup. The mill is capable of producing impressive power of 34bhp @ 9500rpm with maximum torque at a claimed 28nm @ 7500rpm, the claimed unladen weight of the G310R is revealed at 158.5kg.There will be other models followed based on the same platform, of course the race oriented with fairing sportsbike and half faried adventure model. The new BMW G310R will be officially launched in 2016, it is expected that the G310R will be priced approximately Rs 3.0 lacs in India. The bike with ABS as standard feature and other unique attributes inherited from BMW will surely going to make the quarter liter segment more exciting especially here in India.
By:Farhan Kashif
