After its acquisition of famed but financially troubled British brand Norton Motorcycles for 16 million pounds sterling (RM87 million), one question asked of TVS Motor Company India was, “will Nortons be made in India?” The answer to that is ‘no’, according to a carandbike.com report and quoting Joint Managing Director Sudarshan Venu.
TVS intends to keep Norton’s design and assembly team at Donington Park in place but will be moving to new premises in the same area. The plan is to leverage the expertise of the existing design and engineering team while re-establishing Norton as a player in the premium motorcycle segment.
“We’re taking over all the employees except a few, which is basically the old management, who we’re not taking over. The strong design team and assembly team is coming over to us, and we will look to leverage their strength and work with them to deliver more bikes of this storied brand,” said Sudarshan.
There are also no plans to manufacture a small displacement motorcycle under the Norton brand name or make in-roads into the mass market. “Norton is a brand which delights this unique segment of customers around the world, with these very high-end and powerful engines. So, the idea is to build on that legacy and those products, and focus on them for now,” Sudarshan said.
Norton currently uses a 961 cc, air-cooled twin in the Dominator and Commando as well as a 650 cc twin for the Nomad and Ramger models. TVS does not see itself competing with Royal Enfield in this market segment with Sudarshan saying TVS intends to restore Norton to its former glory and bring it into the future.
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Norton will be made a premium but mainstream bike manufacturer, very much akin to Ducati, MV Agusta or even Triumph. So no longer a highly bespoke manufacturer. Sounds like an excellent plan..