In an interview with Cycle World’s Bruno de Prato, Yan Haimei, the CEO OF Benelli, announced that the historic Italian brand will be returning to American soil.
Haimei says that Benelli will make its US return by the end of 2015, though she was not clear on what models the Chinese-owned brand would make available.
“Returning to a market as competitive and selective as the American one will require that we further refine and increase our efforts, adding more personalized models and looking back to our history,” explained Haimei to Cycle World.
Read into that quote as you will, but lately Benelli has been producing budget and beginner focused motorcycles (like the BN251, BN302, BN600, & BN600GT) for the European and Asian markets — a contrasting change from the Tornado (above) and TnT sport bikes that the marque is better known for in the United States.
It remains to be seen if Benelli will simply offer its current line of two-wheelers to Americans, or if the Italian brand will once again develop gorgeous large-displacment street bikes for the USA.
We hope for the latter, though expect the prior. Either way, we hope that models will have fewer gremlins than what was previously seen in the American market.
Source: Cycle World
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