Electra name has been an iconic one in the motorcycle industry as it was associated with Royal Enfield Bullet, which is the world’s longest running production motorcycle. Now, TVS Motor owned Norton Motorcycles has applied for a trademark for Electra name in India. This could mean a lot of things for Indian and global markets alike. Let’s take a closer look.
TVS Trademarks Electra Name
One of India’s leading 2W and 3W manufacturer, TVS Motor, acquired Norton Motorcycles, a renowned British motorcycle brand with a rich heritage. This acquisition happened in 2020 and there have been multiple speculations and rumours about a major comeback for Norton brand and aggressive expansion in mainstream segments for maximum possible volume.
In 2023, Norton applied for a trademark of ‘Norton Combat’ name in India, among others. These include Dominator, Commando, Atlas, Manx, Nomad, Navigator and Ranger. Now, TVS has filed a trademark application for another name in India, which is ‘Norton Electra’. The application was filed in October 2024 and status says ‘Formalities Chk Pass’. It has to be noted that Norton had filed for Electra name in 2020, but abandoned it later.
As of writing this article, it is not clear whether this will be an ICE or an electric motorcycle, as the name Electra suggests. However, TVS has confirmed that there will be as many as six Norton motorcycles to launch over the next three years. These could be across multiple displacement classes to establish diversity.
What to expect?
More recently, TVS Motor Managing Director, Sudarshan Venu, confirmed that the company will manufacture new Norton and Apache models based on the new 450cc platform, jointly developed with BMW Motorrad. The first bike to feature this new engine is likely to be BMW 450 GS, which has been spied testing in India.
This new 450cc engine will do duties in multiple BMW Motorrad, TVS Motor and Norton Motorcycles machines and all of them will be manufactured here in India. Particularly at TVS’ facility in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
Sticking with Norton, we can expect retro classic motorcycles with Electra name or Combat name with this 450cc parallel twin-cylinder liquid-cooled engine to rival Royal Enfield’s 650cc portfolio, among others. There could be single-cylinder offerings in the future to rival Royal Enfield’s 350cc and 450cc offerings, Triumph’s 400cc offerings and even KTM’s 390 range, to some extent.
