Expansion Continues
Jawa Motorcycles burst back onto the scene in 2018. Its resurgence was plagued by some issues, but it’s safe to say interest in the company is high. There’s a lot of promise with this company, and now it seems Jawa will bring its bikes to Europe. According to Indian Autos Blog and several other Indian outlets, Jawa has received homologation for the European market. The Jawa 300 will be the bike that lands in European showrooms first.
The company plans to ease into the European market as opposed to doing a full-on blitz like it did in India. The Mahindra-owned company is just one of the many European motorcycle companies owned by an Indian company now. Royal Enfield used to be European and Norton, until recently was British. Now it is owned by TVS. Jawa has sentimental and strategic reasons for taking its bikes to Europe. The interest in Jawa motorcycles is likely pretty high.
According to reports, the 300 from Jawa will come with no major modifications. The bike was homologated and is good to go. While Jawa has not officially said prices or availability for Europe, it’s clear that it will bring the bikes there. At this time, there’s no indication that Jawa will come to North America, but I would love to see that happen. The bikes are really cool, and I’m all for more bikes of this size in the U.S.
I will try to keep it simple. Jawa was brought to India by two brothers in the 50s who were importing big bikes from BMW and few others until then. They felt big bikes don’t suit our conditions here and felt Jawa was the ideal match. The imported Jawas became a hit here in India. Then the brothers (and their two nephews) started local manufacturing by buying license from Jawa (license for India and few other Asian countries, dunno which countries they have the license to). After few years, they started a new brand (renamed / spin-off/ sister brand, whichever way you wanna call it) called Yezdi. Again small displacement engines (250-350cc), that was a hit too. In the 80s and 90s, the Japanese entered the market with small displacement (less than 150cc, mostly less than 100cc) bikes. These small bikes (called commuter bikes) were extremely ideal for the Indian population who valued efficiency more than anything. The Yezdi became redundant and stopped in late 90s. The resurgence of Royal Enfield triggered all other classic brands. The Mahindra Group which is a huge conglomerate is doing not so well in their recently started two-wheeler space (Mahindra Two Wheelers). They see the potential in Jawa, partner with the nephew who has the license to the brand and combine their technological and manufacturing capabilities with the retro looks and bring out the new Jawa; becomes an instant hit; production ramps up. The new Jawa has 0.3L single cylinder, DOHC, liquid cooled engine, ABS, disc brakes etc; a mix of modern technology with retro looks. Now, the Jawa in India and the Jawa in Czechia are two separate business entities. The Czech company Jawa Moto has around 100 employees. The Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd, which owns the Jawa, Yezdi and BSA (acquired British BSA brand recently) brands is run by Mahindra, Irani (the nephew) and Anupam Thareja. The Indian Jawa is a bigger company now; I feel it is better for them to buy the original Jawa Moto company so that they can sell the bikes globally. From the recent news, what is happening is Jawa Moto wants to import bikes from Jawa India (or Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd.) and sell them in Europe. I am not sure how the lineup will hold in the coming days in Europe. The 3 motorcycles in the current Jawa Moto lineup (sold in UK, Czechia, Germany and few other countries) can’t holdup to the newer models from other global brands. I hope Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd. take the full ownership of Jawa and sell Jawa and BSA globally.
What a magnificent bike, the Jawa 300. The Indian people understannd how to make a retro bike. Let it come to Holland very soon
I think it actually is a bike from 40 years ago….