You Won’t Find A Good Deal On A BS4-compliant Royal Enfield...

[Update: The Royal Enfield Meteor 350 has been spotted in a production-ready state. The bike is likely to replace the Thunderbird 350X. Head here for more details.]

• Royal Enfield claims to be the first company to sell all of its BS4 stock.
• Its first BS6-compliant bike was the popular Classic 350.
• The Thunderbird range is yet to receive BS6 updates.

The automobile industry is in the final stretch of transitioning from BS4 to BS6 emission norms as the deadline looms closer. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, FADA had requested the Supreme Court to grant a 30-day extension. Although the apex court refused to hear the plea, Royal Enfield doesn’t need any such extension as the iconic brand became the first motorcycle manufacturer in India to completely sell off its old BS4-compliant stock. In case you were holding out for a sweet deal closer to the deadline, you won’t get one.

Royal Enfield doesn’t have an exhaustive product portfolio like Honda, Hero or Bajaj. Hence, it was a little easier for it to scale down production and distribution of BS4 bikes. Enfield also managed to promptly shift its focus to get its BS6 inventory in place with the launch of the Classic 350 BS6 dual-channel ABS version taking place in early-January. The company claims that from March 21 onwards, it will only have BS6 units available on sale.

After the official launch of the Classic 350 BS6, Royal Enfield also launched the Himalayan BS6 (with three new attractive colours) and we have seen the likes of the Interceptor 650 BS6, Bullet 350 BS6 and the Continental GT 650 BS6 reach dealerships over the last few weeks. We knew the 500cc platform would not be part of the brand’s BS6 product portfolio.

The only missing piece of the Enfield puzzle then remains the Thunderbird 350 family (standard and X). The T’bird is yet to receive BS6 updates. We have seen the next-gen Thunderbird running with the upcoming J-platform engine on our roads a couple of times. We expect Enfield to launch the bike as soon as the current crisis subsides.