Ninja 500 launch in India is almost confirmed by Kawasaki. It will replace the astronomically priced Ninja 400. But will sense prevail…?
Kawasaki has been wanting to create a business sense of its international Ninja 400 in India for quite some time now. After the Ninja 300 was discontinued internationally, the Indian arm of Kawasaki started making it locally to serve the domestic market – simply because of costs. And as an end result, the Ninja 300 has been doing fairly well for the brand. It is, in fact, one of the bread and butter models for the Jap!
On the other hand, the Ninja 400 when initially launched simply failed to make any impact in the country, not because it was a bad motorcycle or anything, but because it was priced astronomically high. As a result, sales were in single or double digits!
After the latest emission norms came in, Kawasaki mustered enough courage and brought the Ninja 400 back again into the market. The response to the full faired sportster has been slightly better (than last time) as the market has matured from those earlier times. However, it is nowhere close to what Kawasaki would have been expecting.
Kawasaki recently unveiled a new, bigger Ninja 500 internationally and that motorcycle is what is replacing the Ninja 400 in a few markets. A similar strategy is what Kawasaki will be following for India. The Jap has teased the 500 on its social channels with a tag – COMING SOON.
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This means that Kawasaki is bringing in the bigger Ninja 500 and it will definitely replace the Ninja 400. With a slightly bigger heart and an even bigger nomenclature of 500, the bigger Ninja may make a fairly better business sense for Kawasaki. In simpler terms, it may have a higher uptake than the 400, if priced well.
The Ninja 500 is powered by a 451cc, parallel twin, DOHC, liquid cooled, motor which pumps 51 hp of peak power at 10,000 rpm and 31.7 lb-ft of max torque at 7500 rpm. In terms of features it gets Assist & Slipper clutch, anti-lock braking system, smartphone pairability, etc.
What should be the price of the new Ninja 500 in India? I will do a quick one on this tomorrow. But meanwhile, what do you think – at what tag it will sell…?
