With the launch of the new Duke 250 in India, there are two questions that many of you are interested to get answers of. First, why Duke 250 and why NOT the RC250 and second, are there hints that RC250 will come to India, now that the naked sibling is already here…?
Upon being asked – why not the RC250, Mr Amit Nandi, Senior Vice President and Head of KTM Motorcycles in India, said that RC is NOT an entry level product. He elaborated that Duke is more broadbased, it has a wider usage and can be ridden as a daily commute, for touring and a myriad of other daily motorcycling activities.
Basically he made sense. And if we try to understand the placement, the 2017 RC200 costs about Rs 1.72 lakhs and its difference with the immediate sibling Duke 200 is about Rs 30,000. Had KTM introduced the RC250 in India, it would have costed somewhere around Rs 1.9-2.0 Lakhs. At that price tag (for the 250), the RC200 would not have made much of a sense as people considering the 200 would have upgraded to the faired 250.
But more importantly, it would have brought it closer to the full-blown range topper RC390! This cannibalisation (and then the possible axing of the RC200) may have meant lost volumes for KTM. Instead, the Duke 250 which is truly more usable than the RC250, sits pretty well in the range now.
Also Read: KTM NOT to Offer ABS on Duke 250; We Tell You Why…
Will KTM launch RC250 in India?
I don’t think so! At least not in the near future going by the subtle hints given by KTM so far. I think same-generation models of both the 200 and 250 can not co-exist in our market. It is true for the Duke siblings as well which is the reason why they did NOT update the Duke 200 for our market and instead brought the next-gen Duke 250. So, for the coming times, I do NOT see KTM launching the RC250 in India!
Also Read: Deliveries of Duke 250 Commence; On-Road Prices of All Dukes
But yes, what is coming is very exciting – the 390 adventure has been confirmed for our market….
