The partnership between BMW and TVS continues to be beneficial to both companies. The two collaborated on designing the G 310 R and G 310 GS, which TVS builds for BMW in its factories in India. TVS also offers a model of its own, the Apache RR 310, based on the same engine and architecture. It seems that TVS may pull another page out of BMW's playbook and offer an additional model on this platform as well.
K. N. Radhakrishnan, President, CEO, and Additional Whole-Time Director of TVS Motor Company announced the project in an interview with GaadiWaadi. This would be an additional collaboration with BMW using their jointly-designed 310 cc engine, "one more variant of that from TVS Motor Company." While the BMW versions are quite successful worldwide, they haven't managed to gain traction in India. The home TVS brand, however, has sold quite well, so it makes sense to expand the lineup with another TVS model to sell more bikes there.
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We know little about exactly what this new bike is going to be other than its engine. The easiest way for TVS to go might be to add a dual-sport in the same way that BMW has the G 310 R for the street and G 310 GS for the dirt. The Apache RR 310 already takes after the G 310 R and considering the growing popularity of off-road riding such a move would make sense. TVS recently trademarked the name "Raider," which would lend itself well to such a bike.
Another possibility might be a naked . This would be even easier to make, essentially an Apache RR 310 without the bodywork. It also wouldn't require any changes to the existing gearing, suspension, and electronic riding modes the way a dual-sport would, though adapting from the BMW G 310 GS would certainly help. It may also be too similar to the Apache RR 310, possibly eating into that bike's strong sales. Whatever direction TVS intends to go with its new bike, we will likely learn what it is sometime in 2021.
Source: GaadiWaadi