Royal Enfield 250cc Bike Launch By 2026-27: Will Be the Cheapest Royal Enfield Bike

Quick Highlights

• The 250cc engine will most likely be an air-cooled unit

• It is internally called the V platform

• Could be the cheapest 250cc bike in India when launched, even cheaper than Hunter 350

• It could be launched somewhere between 2026 and 2027

Royal Enfield is reportedly working on a 250cc engine, internally codenamed V (Cyberpunk 2077 reference anyone?). This will most likely power a roadster similar to the Royal Enfield Hunter 350, which will not only be the cheapest Royal Enfield bike, but also the cheapest 250cc bike in India. Siddhartha Lal, CEO & Managing Director, Eicher Motors (which owns Royal Enfield), had stated in 2019 that the brand was working on a quarter-litre engine.  However, in 2020, the project was put on a backburner possibly because it was working on the then-new J platform bikes.

The new report also claims that the project development has restarted and the first bike based on it could be launched in 2026-27. The 250cc engine will mostly be a downsized J-Series 350cc air and oil-cooled engine. This will help the brand to keep the costs in check as opposed to a new liquid-cooled engine. The J-Series engine is currently used in the Bullet 350, Classic 350, Meteor 350, and the Hunter 350. It may also have a counter-balancer to control its vibrations.

To put things in perspective, the J-Series 350cc engine makes 20.2PS and 27Nm, which puts its performance at par with some of the 200cc bikes in the country. The performance of the new 250cc engine should be equivalent to the 160cc sporty commuters in India. 

The Hunter 350’s base variant costs Rs 1.49,900 (ex-showroom, Delhi), which has remained unchanged since it was launched in August 2022. That means, at current inflation levels, the 250cc bike could be priced somewhere between Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 1.2 lakh (ex-showroom). 

As per SIAM (Society Of Indian Automotive Manufacturers) sales data, the 150-200cc segment has tallied around 1.03 lakh units in May 2024. That’s a huge segment that has so far been untouched by Royal Enfield as it currently caters only to the 350cc segment and above. With a 250cc bike whose price is comparable to a typical 160cc sporty commuter bike, Royal Enfield will have a huge potential to exploit this segment. Royal Enfield sells the idea of a lifestyle rather than just a product, so launching a 250cc bike will help in bringing in even more newer riders into the brand’s fold. 

All the bikes that were to be based on the J-Series platform, have been launched, and those on the 650cc platform, will be launched soon. This should now allow Royal Enfield to shift focus to a more affordable range in addition to the electric bike development. Also, the 250cc segment is not new for the brand, which had a couple of quarter-litre bikes in the mid ‘90s.

The report also claims that the brand is working on hybridisation of the 250cc platform, albeit just an engineering concept study, and won’t make it to a production bike anytime soon. But this will definitely help the brand to come up with a product that’s a middle ground between petrol-only and all electric-segment, some time in the future.

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