Honda To Take On RE With Multiple 350cc Bikes

Published November 22, 2021
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Honda’s head honcho has revealed that the 350cc platform will give rise to multiple bikes in the future

Expect the next offering in the 350cc segment to be a cruiser.
Honda plans to establish more dealerships across India in the next three years.
It also intends to achieve 3 lakh unit sales a year in the same time frame.

In a bid to take on Royal Enfield in the 350cc segment, Honda forayed into the space with the H’Ness CB350 in September 2020. This was then followed by the launch of a sportier-looking variant, the Honda CB350RS, in February this year. Now, Honda intends to continue this onslaught with multiple bikes (under the 350cc platform) in the pipeline for the next three years.

Speaking to a media house, Honda India’s President Atsushi Ogata said that the number of products in the “mid cc segment (350cc category) will increase year by year”. Ogata also said that Honda’s internal target is to achieve a sales figure of up to 3 lakh units annually in the next three years.

Currently, Honda has around 70 BigWing showrooms, and the Japanese bikemaker intends to set up 100 more by the end of March 2022. And in the next three years, that number will be taken to 300. This should go a long way in catering to demands from smaller cities, and this is where Royal Enfield has a distinct advantage. Apart from offering a variety of motorcycles at different price points, the Chennai-based manufacturer has over 930 dealerships across the country (as of 2019). Additionally, it has introduced 250 dealer touch-points across tier 2 and tier 3 cities, so it’s clear that the total dealerships are well over a thousand now.

As for the upcoming motorcycles under the 350cc platform, the next logical step seems to be introducing a cruiser to take on the Royal Enfield Meteor 350. Expect the bike to share most of its mechanicals with the H’Ness CB350/CB350RS but packaged differently to munch miles effortlessly. A more affordable, no-frills motorcycle will also help the manufacturer eat into the Bullet 350’s market share.

By the time Honda introduces newer bikes, Yezdi will have entered the market with the Roadking Scrambler and Jawa with a new roadster. All in all, the future certainly looks promising in this segment.

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