Just a few days ago, we had posted an article about a rumor that Bajaj Auto was developing a new Avenger, complete with a new engine, and we even had a strong basis for the rumors as Bajaj Auto’s MD, MR. Rajiv Bajaj himself announced that they were indeed working on an a new avenger. The upcoming Bajaj Avenger was rumored to be powered by the engine from the Current 200cc pulsar series as this is the most advanced engine in the Bajaj stable right now and we know that the Avenger and all its updates till now have been powered by engines used in the Pulsar series, more specifically the most powerful Pulsar at the time.
Now all this made perfect sense to us. Bajaj has the recipe in their hands, for the perfect entry level cruiser motorcycle, but the question on our minds right now is, Why the Delay? When the Company’s MD spoke about the new Avenger in an interview, the timeline given by him was that, the new Avenger would make it to showrooms by June, 2015. But we are already almost half through June and there are no signs of the new Avenger yet, not even a single test mule has been spotted yet.
Now, our confusion regarding this matter has been elevated by what the president of Bajaj Auto’s Motorcycle division, Eric Vas, said about the Avenger brand in a recent interview. Mr. Eric Vas was quoted as saying, “We have been looking at the Avenger segment for some time and we are trying to understand what can be done. We will gradually bring our focus back on that brand because we think there is a lot of potential on that end of the market.”
It seems like the boffins at Bajaj Auto have been too busy with the launch of the Pulsar RS200, AS200 and AS150 and the new Avenger project got side-tracked by a bit in the process. This has also now made us firmly believe that Bajaj Auto is indeed working on the Avenger and we will definitely see a new Avenger coming out ‘soon’, but how soon, is what is left to be known. This has also confirmed to us that development of the new Avenger has not yet begun which also explains the reason as to why we haven’t seen any test mules yet.
No one from Bajaj Auto has commented on the engine that will be used in the new Avenger, but we are very confident that it will be the 199.5cc, liquid cooled, single-cylinder engine powering the Pulsar 200NS, AS200 and RS200. This is a lesson taught to us by history as all the Avengers have been powered by the most powerful Pulsar’s engine of that time and right now, it is the 24.5 PS fuel-injected variant used in the Pulsar RS200.
If we are right about this and Bajaj will indeed be using the 199.5cc engine, it will mean that the whole avenger platform will have to undergo a complete overhaul, which also means that it will not be just another facelift. This will be an almost new motorcycle, which is a very good thing indeed.
Looks like Bajaj has got yet another winner on its hands.
To read more on Bajaj Avenger, Click here
Also see: Bajaj Avenger with 200cc engine in pipeline; launch by end-2015
Source: BikeAdvice
