Earlier last year, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway announced its decision to make ABS in 125cc and above bike mandatory in India. This was mainly taking the recent amplifying road accidental involving two-wheelers in the country into account. According to the Ministry's directive, all new 125cc bikes that are launched on or after April 1, 2018, must offer ABS as standard and the same must be done for existing 125cc and above bikes by April 1, 2019. As for bikes below the 125cc spectrum, manufacturers will get a chance to offer ABS or CBS (combined braking system) as an option to meet the necessary derivatives.
Taking the soon-to-be-imposed government regulations on ABS for bikes into consideration, Andreas Wolf, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing and Quality, Bosch said, "We are planning to start the manufacture of ABS for bikes here at our Chakan plant in Pune from April next year to meet the huge demand for such systems in the country in future." Adding more to it, he told us that Bosch will be using Industry 4.0 approach in manufacturing two-wheeler parts in the future saying, "Bosch will implement smart manufacturing in two-wheeler business. We will deliver some components and contribute to the two-wheeler business in future."
Bajaj Pulsar RS200 With ABS
Already mandated across Europe and several other countries in the world, ABS for bikes in India is still seen as a premium features rather than a necessary one. So much so that ABS in bikes come as a standard equipment in India only in premium and high-end bikes that fall above the 350cc spectrum. As for motorcycle ABS in the 125cc and above to 300cc category, the options are pretty scarce. In fact, even the bikes that do come with ABS, get them as optional equipment only and in some cases not even that, like the Kawasaki Ninja 300 and Yamaha R3. Currently, the only two-wheeler manufacturers that are offering ABS in bikes in the sub-300cc segment are TVS and Bajaj, with the Apache 180 ABS and the Pulsar RS200 ABS respectively. In fact, TVS is about to bring in the ABS version of the newly launched RTR Apache 200 V4 as well.
This shows that things are changing and manufacturers have started to realise the need of the hour, especially with the soon-to-be-imposed ABS norm. And Bosch India is among the first suppliers to address this issue. The German giant even conducted an accident research study that suggests that every third accident involving a two-wheeler can be avoided through the fitment of motorcycle ABS. Among other component manufacturers who are planning to supply two-wheeler ABS in the country, we have Continental Automotive Components India.
