Jawa, iconic bike brand, on way back

The company, in which the Mahindra group has 60 per cent stake, plans to unveil three products on November 15 and will play in the 250cc plus mid-segment of the Indian motorcycle market.

"We are looking to launch the brand with three products. We are going to be a mid-segment player with Jawa," Classic Legends CEO Ashish Joshi told PTI here.  He, however, declined to share details of the products that have been lined up for introduction. When asked by when the Jawa models will hit the market, he said "very soon" after the unveiling on November 15. 

Jawa will enter a segment, which is currently dominated by Royal Enfield. Other global players such as Harley Davidson and Triumph have also been targeting to capture a significant part of the segment. 

Classic Legends Thursday unveiled a 293cc liquid cooled single cylinder engine that will power the soon-to-be launched Jawa motorycles. The engine has been developed from the ground up through a collaboration between the group's R&D centre in Pune and technical centre in Varese, Italy. 

While developing the engine, Joshi said the brief was "always to build an engine that had the Jawa DNA. Classic, yet sporty". Commenting on the market penetration plans, he said, "At the launch itself, we will have around 100 dealerships pan India". 

These will be in metros, tier II and III cities, Joshi added. Bullish on the Indian market, he said in the past few years a lot of customers have been upgrading from the mass segment to mid and upper end of the motorcycle segment thus providing a lot of opportunities. 

The Jawa bikes will be rolled out from Mahindra Group's Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh. Joshi said Classic Legends will leverage on Mahindra's strengths in production, sourcing and R&D for Jawa. "What Mahindra brings to us is a very solid backing in terms of sourcing, expertise in manufacturing and R&D. 

All of these of very strong foundations for us," he added. When asked if the company planned to export Jawa motorcycles, Joshi said, "The license we have for Jawa brand is for India and other similar markets such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and ASEAN countries. However, our primary focus will be on the Indian market".