The last gen Kawasaki Ninja 250R could easily be credited with introducing the generally ‘excitement-derived’ Indian biking aficionados the best in the world of multi-cylinder quarter litre sportsbikes.
The Ninja 250R was launched in India in 2008 and came to us with a sticker price of INR 2.69 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi). The Ninja 250 continued to be the most enticing, albeit expensive, proposition for those in the market for a 250cc sportsbike Bajaj Auto Ltd replaced the bike with a generation younger Ninja 300, which went on sale with a price tag of INR 3.5 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).
While the new Ninja 300 has been warmly welcomed by the enthusiasts (most of whom have already started feverishly saving some VitaminM to buy it), really low sales figures due to the niche segment that the bike caters to means that Kawasaki has already started charting out a plan to make the most of its production capacity of 5000 units at the Chakan plant and thus, gather a stronger foothold in the market.
It is being said that Kawasaki might very soon re-launch the last gen Ninja 250 in the Indian market.
“We have a capacity to make 5000 units a year in India but we are operating at 1500 units at present. We have to make further use of this facility to improve its utilisation. That is why we are exploring the plan of launching more locally made products including the Ninja 250,” Shigeto Nishikawa, deputy MD, India Kawasaki Motors, recently said.
While most of us would want to see the new Ninja 250 coming to us, it is only logical that the bike maker would launch the earlier model. It may be noted that both the latest Ninja 250 and the Ninja 300 share the styling and there is really little, other than the performance figurers, to separate the two bikes. Having both the bikes simultaneously on sale in the country would mean that the smaller variant could eat into the sales of its elder sibling. The earlier Ninja 250R, however, could come to us with a more attractive price tag and the lower price cut might help the bikemaker stealing away some limelight from the very aggressively priced KTM 390 Duke. Our guess is that the old Ninja 250R could re-enter India with a price tag of INR Rs. 2.25 lakhs.
The last gen N250R is powered by a 249cc, parallel-twin engine that has a max power of 33 PS and peak torque of 22 Nm. Healthy engine performance along with excellent dynamics, all at a mouth watering price tag, could really make life a lot tougher for some single cylinder rivals out there. What say?
via – Business Standard
There’s also something called spare part costs, to make people who will actually use the bike think twice