Castle Donington-based Norton Motorcycles has agreed a 20-year Design & Licence deal with Zongshen Manufacturing of Chongqing (China) with regard to an all-new 650cc twin cylinder engine — jointly engineered and developed by Norton and Ricardo exclusively for Zongshen — that is Euro 4 compliant.

This will enable Zongshen to meet current and future emissions regulations and therefore continue its rapid growth in the global motorcycle market (www.nortonmotorcycles.com).

The value of the deal is to remain private, but the initial payment to Norton is millions of dollars, with a royalty on each engine produced. Zongshen produced around 4 million engines last year.

Norton CEO Stuart Garner said: “This is a great endorsement of our new 650cc engine platform, and it shows the high level of engineering expertise we have here at Norton.

“The commercialisation of our IP is a key area for Norton, and we will be re-investing the substantial revenue from this deal in our skills, training and engineering capability.”