Team-BHP - Rumour: Royal Enfield considering a 250cc bike for India

According to a media report, Royal Enfield is considering a 250cc bike for the Indian market. It is reportedly being evaluated by the company's Indian R&D centre.

Rumour: Royal Enfield considering a 250cc bike for India-royal-enfield.jpg

Reports suggest that Royal Enfield is also planning to introduce stripped-down or no-frill versions of its motorcycles. This could reduce the base price of its products, while giving customers the choice to personalize their bikes. It is expected to make products more accessible and bring in volumes.

Royal Enfield's sales have slumped in the last four months. It is believed that the slow down is due to products getting more expensive following the transition to BS-IV emission norms. Mandatory safety features like ABS have also driven up the prices, while insurance costs have also gone up. It has been reported that product prices have gone up by about 8-10% in the last 2 years, as a result.

According to media report, Royal Enfield is also planning to open 350 studio outlets in rural areas. The bikemaker aims to reach more customers in rural areas in order to increase sales.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

As someone who has closely followed the almost closure of Royal Enfield in India during the late 1990s to its meteoric rise under the charismatic Siddarth Lal, I feel that the most important thing for the company is to focus on Quality Control and further technological advancement. A 250cc RE or a stripped 350cc is still not enough. There are too many quality issues with the RE which thankfully seems to be minimised in the 650 twins. However, a lot needs to be done which was very well capitalized by the introduction of the Jawas. People out there are still willing to pay good money for the right product, case in point the Suzuki Gixxer 250SF. Hence, more then new products, presenting the existing in laughable guises as in Trials, Signals, Redditch editions, I feel RE should concentrate how to put together a strong, reliable and technologically competent product. That is my two cents on this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TusharK (Post 4613920)

Not quite sure what a stripped down, no frill version RE would look like. It's not as if these are particular frivolous bikes to start with.

Anyway, I wish them all the best in their endeavors.
I will be travelling to India in a few weeks and I hope to have time to visit a RE shop around Delhi/Gurgaon to buy the recently released RE scale model.

Having owned and driven a vintage RE Bullet for four years in India is still embedded in my memory as one of my great and enjoyable experiences.

But I agree, quality wise they could be doing better!

Jeroen

By getting into the 250 cc segment, RE seems to be targeting a highly competitive space. While the styles of the bikes are considerably different, RE will end up competing with 200-250 cc commuter/ sports bikes. I don't think that their sweet spot lies there.

Also, what would a stripped down version of a RE bike be? Aren't they already bare bones?

Foraying into smaller displacements engines isn't anything new for RE. They have launched numerous smaller displacement motorcycles(as low a 20 to 50cc up to 250cc) in the past solo as well as in collaboration. Some examples are Sherpa, Fantabulous, Fury, Explorer, MOFA, Silver Plus, Crusader, Continental GT, and many more... Who can forget the 125cc flying flea of WW2.

Interestingly the 250cc engines used on CGT, Crusader, etc. during the yore were Unit Construction Engines (UCE) like their present UCE 350 and 500.

It would be exciting to see how RE leverages on smaller displacement motorcycles. If they manage to build a light weight motorcycle with a peppy engine they may have some takers. Pricing will be key here as 200-250cc class of motorcycles is heavily crowded in India so there has to be some differentiating factor.

I believe RE foresees prices of their regular bread and butter models jumping up considerably post BS VI hence might be looking to cushion that by bringing in lower displacement motorcycles to appeal to a broader base.

Harley Davidson had recently announced that the company has joined hands with China-based Qianjiang Group which owns Benelli and there was a strong rumor that HD is going to launch its own version of TNT300 (BN302) which will basically be a rebadged TNT300. Since QJ group already sells TNT135, 250 and 300, who knows we might see sub 750/500CC Harley Davidsons on indian roads real soon. clap:

Link to news:
https://www.rushlane.com/harley-davi...-12314551.html

PS: I had just noticed that this thread talks about of RE and not of HD. Moderators, please move this post to appropriate thread. Thanks!