Honda CBR650F to be priced at Rs 8 lakh in India

The Honda CBR650F has created lot of curiosity among Indian two-wheeler buyers since the time it was first showcased at the 2014 Auto Expo. One of the main reasons for this interest was its pricing, as Honda officials had claimed that it would be priced very aggressively. It was estimated that the Honda CBR650F would carry a price tag of around Rs 5 lakh as it would be brought to our market via the CKD route while localisation would further help in reducing the price. Sadly though that wouldn’t be the case as at a recent press conference Keita Muramatsu HMSI, President and CEO quoted that the bike will carry a sticker price of around Rs 8 lakh. The main reason for this pricing is the fact that Honda has not been able to localise the parts of the Honda CBR650F extensively as expected. In fact, they have only managed to achieve five per cent localisation for the Honda CBR650F which is almost similar to what Kawasaki has been able to achieve for the Kawasaki Z250 and Kawasaki Ninja 300.

Initially it was expected that the Honda CBR650F would look horns with the Kawasaki Ninja 650 given their similar displacement and sports-tourer characteristics. In this battle, the Honda offering was supposed to have an advantage owing to the fact that it had an in-line four motor that is more preferred by buyers in the performance segment. Now though with the pricing of Rs 8 lakh one can expect it to rival the upcoming DSK-Benelli TNT 600GT which too has a four-pot motor similar to the Honda CBR 650F. Also, the launch of the motorcycle has been delayed to July instead of March, 2015 as announced earlier. The delayed launch may be a strategy by Honda to buy some time to increase the localisation percentage and thereby reducing the price of the motorcycle.

Talking about specifications, the Honda CBR650F houses a 649cc, liquid-cooled, in-line-four motor pumping out 87PS at 11,000rpm and 63Nm at 8,000rpm.This means that the Honda offering has an advantage of 15PS over the Kawasaki Ninja 650 and in terms of torque rating it’s just one Nm down. The motor is mated to a six-speed transmission. The Honda CBR650F employs a steel twin-spar frame while the swingarm has been crafted from aluminium. Suspension duties are handled by 41mm forks at front and preload adjustable monoshock setup at the back. Braking is done by disc brakes at front and rear while ABS will be standard.