Honda’s premium bike segment is weakest in the market
Honda is tight-lipped when it comes regarding the CBR 250R. The Japanese company has never revealed any plans about launched a better-looking 300cc faired sports bike in the country. Honda launched the CBR 300R in the international market in 2014 and was expected to launch the same model in the Indian market too. However, that day never got to see as Honda kept doing the stickering job on the old CBR 250R model year by year.
Speaking about this year’s sales, Honda CBR 250R sold only 797 units in 7 month period from January 2019. The numbers went down dramatically after the introduction of the safety norms in April 2019. This is because the ABS variant of the CBR 250R carried a premium of Rs 30,000 over the standard model.
| Month | Units sold |
| January | 189 |
| February | 144 |
| March | 150 |
| April | 161 |
| May | 54 |
| June | 51 |
| July | 48 |
| Total | 797 |
Honda discontinued both the CBR 150R as well as CBR 250R from the Indian market with the enforcement of BS4 emission norms in April 2017. There was no word from the company of the launch of any product in the performance category. In the Auto Expo 2018, there were rumors that Honda is going to launch the CBR 300R in India but things turned out to be tasteless when one layed their eyes on the CBR 250R with LED headlight.
Also Read: What if Honda decided to launch this bike with Hornet 160R’s engine?
On the other hand, if we speak about the Honda CB300R which was launched in February 2019 registered only 63 units in the month of July 2019. Honda had said that they are fully booked for 2019 as more than 400 units of the bike were booked before the launch. In June, the month when its delivery commenced, registered a sales number of 80 units.
It is highly likely that Honda will discontinue the CBR 250R in the Indian market once the BS6 norms are enforced. As it will be pointless to invest in upgrading the 250cc engine to meet BS6 norms just to sell 40-50 units per month. Honda might consider launching CB150R Exmotion in India to rival Yamaha MT-15 or avoid the performance segment altogether. We can also expect a Stunner like half faired motorcycle with Hornet 160R’s engine. Or a CB300R styled 160cc bike which might get some numbers to the Activa maker.
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