Bikes and imports...

I'm a great fan of vehicle on 2 wheels and i've said this before too if i remember it right. I jus love to ride them. This love of the two wheels started long back with the bicycle and then shifted to motored vehicles and the first motored vehicle i drove was my dad's Bajaj Chetak scooter. A 150cc engine and i'm not sure how much was the power but, must be some 8 or 10 BHp. And this was possible only with my dad helping me balance the vehicle. And the best part was that i was not tall enough then to sit on the seats and still be able to get my legs on the ground. :) A lot has changed after that in the next 13 years that followed and luckily now i drive my 180cc bike and it's got 16BHp of power in it and it's from Bajaj. Somehow, i still remember that jingle from the bajaj ad, 'buland bharath ki buland thasveer, hamara bajaj'. ;)

Puny, i'll say compared to a Ducati, Yamaha, honda and it's likes. I'm saying this because yesterday i happened to read in the newspapers that Ducati motor holding, Italy is launching it's range of bikes in India!! God, i was in for more shock when i read the article. There were 5 bikes in the offering and the prices ranged from 20-48Lakh Indian Rupees! I know that they are world renowned and winners of super-bike championships and things like that. But a whooping 48 Lakhs for Ducati Super-bike 1098R? Is the pricing sane enough? Well, it's 80000 euros if i directly convert currency from rupees to euros. And in europe it costs about less than half this price. I know customs duty is a serious factor that gets added when importing these vehicles which sets the prices soaring. But when you really compare the prices abroad to the ones we can bargain for, i don't think people in India get a fair deal. Well, Indian partner of Ducati is Precision Motors India Private Ltd.(which also sells famed Porsche and Audi brands in India under partnership with the original manufacturers).

Ducati and other manufacturers of world class products should concentrate on producing bikes here or at least some parts of it to lessen the costs in future. It'll help them and the customers as well. It'll also make the bike accessible to more number of people. After all that is what is engineering is all about. Lessening the cost and size of a product and increasing the quality. I for now appreciate the fact that Ducati has bothered to look into India for business and i would further appreciate it if somehow the costs come down in near future and some serious business plans are chalked out. I can't see that happening anytime too soon anyways. But i know it'll happen or else they'll stop selling in India in terms of quantity.

Something very similar happened recently when Yamaha motors planned to bring their famed R1 and MT1 bikes to India. They needed no partners as Yamaha motors has their presence in india. The bikes are priced better in this case at about 10-12 lakh Indian rupees. I guess people will look forward more towards a Yamaha R1 than a Ducati 1098R. Why? because both have a more or less similar racing history and tech specs. And i guess, pricing will be the major setback for Ducati's for now.

I think our government has to seriously think of reducing the vehicle import duties which are way too much. I'm also not saying here that it should be annulled. A competent duty charge should be there. Because if always duties remain so much high, our indian manufacturers of automobile will never feel threatened. This would not drive them to excel or to design better engines. Isn't it? And i also seriously think Indian automobiles are over priced(not all, but most). Decreasing of duties will also help Indian buyers who are want a automobile which is the best by all standards. A healthy competition and combination should be arrived at i feel. Because it's something that might effect us on national tax earnings and employment too(because the importers don't have factories here).