Benelli India is all set to launch the Leoncino 500 in early August 2019, possibly within the first week. The company has begun rolling out teasers on its social media platforms and as we reported earlier, this is the Leoncino’s road-oriented version for India.
The Benelli Leoncino 500 is a scrambler style motorcycle, powered by a 499.6cc, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, twin-cylinder motor that develops 47.6hp at 8,500rpm and 45Nm of torque at 5,000rpm. A tubular steel trellis frame wraps around the engine and the motorcycle is suspended by 50mm USD forks at the front and a monoshock at the rear with a remote adjuster for preload.
It gets a 320mm dual-disc setup at the front, with four piston-brake calipers and a 260mm single disc at the rear with a single-piston caliper. The standard motorcycle has a kerb weight of 207kg.
The 500cc Leoncino is available in three different variants – Standard, Trail and Sport – across International markets. In case of India, as we mentioned, Benelli is waiting to gauge the response to the standard Leoncino 500 before it decides to bring in the other variants.
In International markets, the Benelli Leoncino 500 and the Benelli TRK 502 are priced quite close to each other. However, in India we expect a bigger price gap between the two models as the Leoncino will sit at the entry point of Benelli’s 500cc range in India.
Considering the competitive price of the Benelli TRK 502 (Rs 5.10 lakh) and TRK 502X (Rs 5.50 lakh) we expect the Benelli Leoncino 500's ex-showroom price to be around the Rs 4.7-5 lakh mark.
All prices are ex-showroom, Mumbai
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
