The Honda pavilion at the Auto Expo last year was one of the largest ones and the emphasis it gave to middle-weight motorcycles is what makes things really exciting. Apart from the CBR 650F which the company has confirmed is coming to India very soon, Honda also showcased the CBR 500R (for the first time) without talking too much about it. Ever since then, the word on the streets is that Honda does have plans to launch it here in the market but there is nothing concrete that has been revealed by the company yet…!
Now, another report on Overdrive claims that Honda will launch the CBR500R in India and interestingly they claim that it is coming within this year. Honda, at this point, is very aggressive and does have plans to launch newer products in many segments but we hope they launch something more interesting than their latest Unicorn 160.
CBR500R comes with a 471cc liquid cooled, fuel injected, parallel twin engine which churns out 47.5 PS of power and 43 Nm of torque and weighs a heavy 193 kgs. It has the same bore as that of the 600RR but it is significantly cheaper. While the CBR 600RR has a price tag of 11,490 dollars (Rs 7.13 lakhs), the CBR 500R has a more humble sticker price tag of 6,299 dollars which equates to about 3.91 lakhs in Indian Rupees.
If they decide to bring it as a CKD unit and price it sensibly, it can create a new segment of faired mid-size bikes under the Ninja 650 range. There are other versions of the Honda 500 series as well – the naked CB500F and CB500X, the adventure tourer.
Apart from this, Honda definitely has something in the 250-300cc coming to India as a replacement for the CBR250R. Reports predict that the company is silently working on the bigger CBR300R but there is no confirmation on what month is Honda targeting for its launch.
Related: Honda Goes Berserk: Plans Seven All-New Model Launches in 2015
