The much-awaited Swedish brand Husqvarna’s new cafe-racer bikes – Svartpilen 401 and Vitpilen 401 – will finally be within the reach of the customers as the expected launch time for the duo has been revealed. The upcoming bikes from the Swedish dirt bike specialist will be sold via KTM showrooms. Bajaj has announced that these new bikes will hit the Indian market by November. The two bikes will share the same engine and will also be based on the same underpinnings that have jointly been developed by Bajaj Auto and KTM. The bikes will also be changed in a major way so as to qualify for the Indian rules and gel better in the Indian market.
The chief commercial officer at Bajaj Auto, Rajeev Sharma recently spoke about the upcoming plans of the company in India and added,
The market will see a lot of action beginning June. We already had a couple of introductions in the last two months. There has been an upgrade to the Dominar and the Avenger. Across the spectrum over the next 3-4 months the market will see 3-4 launches. These will be on smart innovations but not revolutionary. These will become the primary drivers of growth. We are on track with Husqvarna bikes and they will be launched in the middle of the year. It could be September–November period because that’s also when the festival sales peak. We have to make sure it has an impact. We are on track with that.
As already mentioned, the upcoming Husqvarna Vitpilen 401 and Svartpilen 401 will share their platform as well as engines. The Vitpilen 401 is a new cafe-racer themed bike, a trend that has been catching on India as well as the global market. On the other hand, the Svartpilen is more of a scrambler style bikes, something that the Husqvarna brand is known for. The new bikes will come with the same platform that is seen on the KTM Duke 390. However the platform has been tweaked so as to suit better to the architecture of the upcoming bikes.
The upcoming bikes from the Swedish brand will come with the same 373cc engine that is found in India on the KTM Duke 390. While the global version of the bikes comes with an automatic clutch option, we are not so sure that the same will make its way to the Indian market.
The upcoming bikes are expected to be priced more than the KTM Duke 390 in the market. The company is also making several changes in the bikes so as to make them better suited for the Indian market and there are hopes that the upcoming Swedish twins will also be manufactured in India which could make the bikes further affordable.
