Honda may be doing well in the commuter segment but in the performance and premium motorcycle space, it is drastically going down hill. Honda sold a mere 79 units last month of the potent CBR250R. The Honda CBR150R, the one which is even more brutally overpriced seems to be doing better than the CBR250R (935 units in April 2014) but miles behind its competition. The Yamaha R15 manages to sell more than 2500 units every month in absolute comfort, despite not offering much performance for the price.
Such an alarming number for the Honda CBR250R was not expected. Couple of months back we told you the number of CBR250Rs being sold in the country, which was around 250-350 units per month. The CBR250R does not seem very profitable or a successful product in the Indian market for sure. We think Honda has either, on its own, reduced production and are getting ready for the CBR300R, which no matter how much Honda denies, is coming for sure. Honda will never stand back and let the competition sweep away all the glory.
Competition reminds us of the KTM Duke 390, which is also very much responsible for killing the Honda CBR250R because of standard ABS, lower pricing and being bigger in every aspect. Dimensions remind us that the Royal Enfield Continental GT 535cc engined Cafe Racer comes for around the same price too. Even the Yamaha R25 is on its way to target the Honda CBR250R but before that Honda will bring the CBR300R, which as we all know is already being tested internally as always because Honda never tests a product in real life conditions. The Honda CBR300R also can only succeed if the pricing is done right!
