Polaris, the parent company of two iconic motorcycle brands, Indian and Victory has confirmed that it will be launching the Victory Motorcycles in India. This was confirmed to by the top honcho to BikeAdvice.
Last year there were reports about a possible Victory launch soon after the American manufacturer starts the Indian Motorcycles operation in the country. But the company announced that were not launching the brand as it wanted to gauge the performance of Indian Motorcycle brand first. If they feel the brand is doing well in India, then they will think of getting the other marque to the country. We do not have the official sales number of Indian bikes yet, but we are expecting the performance to be good.
Pankaj Dubey, MD, Polaris India, confirmed that few Victory models will be priced below Indian Motorcycles, which starts at Rs 26 lakh. The price range of the Victory is expected to start at Rs 20 lakh and go all the way till Rs 33 lakh. Victory Motorcycles has three types of bikes under its umbrella – Baggers, Touring and Cruisers. It is very unlikely that the company will get the entire range to India as it would want to test the market first. The motorcycles will be imported from United States and will come through completely-built-up (CBU) route that will involve high taxation.
We can expect Polaris to sell the Victory Motorcycles separately and not integrate it with the Indian as both are iconic brands and will need to take care of their own brand values and equities.