Honda X-Blade discontinued from the market. Not a single unit shipped since January 2024. Also taken off from the official website…
Honda has clearly been the star of the show this year. It is on the verge of creating history by beating erstwhile partner and now arch-rival Hero MotoCorp to become the largest selling 2-wheeler seller in India. It is doing phenomenally well in some segments but the sporty 150-160cc segment has always been an Achilles Heel for the brand!
Honda has tried multiple motorcycle models in this space that includes the Unicorn Dazzler, Trigger and even the CBR 150R in the most premium sub-segment in this space – but none of them worked. The Jap furthered its battle with the introduction of the 160cc Hornet and followed it up with the X-Blade in a hope that something will work for them – apart from the very successful Unicorn that it sells in the commuter 150-160cc space.
However, the Hornet was pushed upwards as a near 200cc motorcycle and the X-Blade was given the charge to fight against the Apaches and Pulsars in this sub-segment. Honda, being Honda, kept on pursuing with the model despite timid sales for many years but its fortunes simply failed to make any sort of turnaround. And that has led the company to finally discontinue the motorcycle with that slapped-face headlamp.
The X-Blade has been taken off from the official website and I went all the way till the start of this year ie January and noticed that Honda hasn’t shipped a single unit of the motorcycle to its dealerships in all these months – sealing the fate of the almost 6-7 year old model.
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With the new CEO, Honda’s strategy has been clear – weed out brands that aren’t working and instead push names that have a strong connect. The Grazia was discontinued and the Dio brand name was introduced in the 125cc scooter segment and it seems to be doing fairly good. The SP moniker, which did the trick for Honda in the 125cc space, was pushed to the 160cc segment and the SP160 was launched as a supporting motorcycle to sibling Unicorn; and it also seems to be doing roughly 5000-10,000 units a month.
With this discontinuation, Honda has completely vacated the sporty 160cc motorcycle space – where there has been a lot of action in the recent years. Bajaj introduced its new-gen N series in this space, TVS upped the game with its Apache 4Vs and Hero also joined the bandwagon with its Xtreme 160 range. Will we see another attempt by Honda to capture a pie of this lucrative segment?
