KTM North America yesterday announced the sticker prices of both the RC390 and the Duke 390 for the US market. The naked will sell for $4,999 (INR 3.08 lakh) and the faired bike will cost $5,499 (INR 3.40 lakh). While the Duke 390 does not have much competition, other than the Honda CB300F and the Suzuki GW250, the RC390 certainly does!
The RC will have to battle it out with more formidable competition that comprises the Ninja 300, Yamaha YZF-R3, and CBR 300R. And guess what? The RC390 is more expensive than all the three in the US of A! So while it’s cheaper in India than the Ninja 300 by around 1.75 lakh rupees, the KTM is approximately 13 thousand rupees dearer than the Kawasaki in America – and that’s the Ninja with the ABS we’re talking about!
The Yamaha YZF-R3 is priced at $4,990 (INR 3.09 lakh) while the Honda CBR 300R is the cheapest of the lot at $4,899 (INR 3.02 lakh). Also, the Honda and Ninja are available with ABS but the R3 isn’t! Of course, it’s only KTM that provides ABS as standard on the both the 390s.
Even now, both the KTMs have the best power-to-weight ratio in this group and it’s only the Yammie that comes close. The prices of the Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha in the US give you more than a fair idea of what these would cost here if the respective manufacturers choose to build them in India. That does not seem like happening anytime soon, and so the KTMs will continue to reign supreme for a long, long time to come!
Only Hero MotoCorp’s HX250R could spice things a bit next year…
Source: blog.motorcycle.com
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