Kawasaki has increased prices of the Ninja 300 by Rs. 10,000/- resulting in the already expensive bike getting even more pricier. ABS is still not offered, not even as an option on this Rs. 4 lakh bike.
All of us have been complaining that the Ninja 300 is overpriced and Kawasaki needs to reduce the asking price of their entry-level motorcycle in India by at least a lakh. However, instead of lowering prices, Kawasaki has gone ahead and increased the price of the Ninja 300 by Rs. 10,000/-, the result is an on-road Mumbai price of Rs. 3.96 lakhs (that’s a Rs. 14,000/- increase after factoring in insurance and registration charges). The price of the Ninja 300 is now back to the pre excise duty reduction days so once the government rolls back old excise duties (post March 2015), this Kawasaki will further become more expensive.
The highly optimistic pricing of the Ninja 300 is a big cause of concern. While sales of this baby Ninja were still decent (around 50 units sold every month), the increase in price will further push people away from this green machine. With the launch of the KTM RC 390, the Ninja’s appeal is further blunted, the Austrian pocket-rocket also offering more goodies and higher output while also having ABS as standard. Kawasaki for reasons best known to them, still doesn’t offer ABS on the Ninja 300, not even as an option.
We are unable to understand the strategy behind Kawasaki’s pricing policy in India. Save for the Ninja 300, all other bikes of the company are priced sanely. The high pricing of the Ninja 300 is not only robbing them of volumes in the quarter-litre space but also in high-end segments. Motorcyclists are quite loyal to the brand they own so if Kawasaki is able to lure a person to buy a Ninja 300, they are very likely to see him upgrade to a bigger Kawasaki in the future. But that doesn’t seem to be happening as the Ninja 300 is itself so costly that people have started to look elsewhere. The Ninja 650 is priced at Rs. 5.95 lakhs and that bike too doesn’t get ABS.
