EICMA 2023: What's relevant for India?

EICMA is the place where two-wheeler manufacturers always reveal new and interesting bikes and scooters and this year’s show was no exception. Here we’ll tell you which two-wheelers from the show will make their way to India. 

Hero MotoCorp

The world’s largest two-wheeler OEM was present at EICMA and it took the wraps off some interesting scooters that will make their way to India sometime next year. 

The Xoom 125R is a fairly conventional 125cc scooter, apart from the fact that it runs on 14-inch wheels. However, its elder sibling, the Xoom 160, is uncharted territory for Hero. The larger Xoom 160 has a maxi-scooter design with ADV design themes and rolls on 14-inch wheels shod with dual-purpose tyres. It gets novel features like keyless ignition, remote seat opening and even a single-channel ABS system. But the biggest talking point of the scooter is its brand-new liquid-cooled, 156cc, single-cylinder mill making 14hp and 13.7Nm.

Honda

Honda showcased a lot of models that have the potential to come to India. The most likely candidate is surprisingly the largest bike here – the 2024 Africa Twin Adventure Sports. Now boasting a 19-inch front wheel, the touring-focused Africa Twin variant is more road-friendly than ever before and should launch in India sometime next year.

Honda recently launched the Transalp XL750 middleweight ADV in India, so it could also introduce the CB750 Hornet, which uses the same engine and chassis platform. Overseas the price difference between the two bikes is roughly Rs 2.40 lakh, so if the CB750 Hornet were to come here, it would be priced around the Rs 8.50 lakh-9 lakh mark, which would price it quite close to the larger and more powerful, Kawasaki Z900 (Rs 9.20 lakh).  

The other more likely candidates for an India launch, or actually re-launch, are the updated CB650R and CBR650R. Both these bikes have received cosmetic updates and new electronic features for the 2024 model year as well as a separate variant featuring Honda’s E-clutch technology. Honda does sell DCT bikes in India so it could also bring bikes with E-clutch tech here. 

However, it remains to be seen whether it will launch both the CB650R and the CB750 Hornet here as they would be priced quite close to one another. Considering how much the Indian riding public is enamoured with the scream of an inline-four engine, the CB650R will almost surely be given the nod in favour of the CB750 Hornet if it comes down to picking just one. 

Honda also unveiled some new 500cc models in the form of the CB500 Hornet street naked and the NX500 adventure bike, which replace the erstwhile CB500F and CB500X, respectively. The CB500X was sold here for a few years, albeit at a very steep price, while a handful of CB500F bikes were brought here to gauge customer interest but it was never officially sold here. It remains to be seen if Honda re-enters the sub-500cc segment again with these new models. 

Kawasaki

Kawasaki has introduced the brand-new Ninja 500 and Z500, and of the two, it is the Ninja that is quite likely to come to India, sometime next year. It will come via the CBU route, which means it is likely to cost even more than the Rs 5.19 lakh (ex-showroom, India) Ninja 400 it will eventually replace. 

Kawasaki hasn’t sold a sub-500cc parallel-twin Z model in India since the Z250 was discontinued a few years ago, so it remains to be seen whether the Z500 will make its way to India. 

Kawasaki also took the wraps off some very cool '90s-inspired liveries on the ZX-4RR, ZX-6R and ZX-10R Ninja models. Considering the 6R is slated to make a comeback to India and that the ZX-10R is a popular model here, we could see limited numbers of these bikes come here. Unfortunately, we only get the base ZX-4R here, not the ZX-4RR, which is draped in special livery.

Suzuki

Suzuki took the wraps off two new models based on its existing platforms, the GSX-8R sportbike powered by its new 776cc parallel-twin and the GSX-S1000GX crossover powered by its trusty 999cc inline-four engine. 

The GSX-S1000GX shares its engine with the Katana retro sport naked that’s currently sold in India. However, it remains to be seen whether Suzuki believes that the GX makes sense as an alternative to other established big adventure tourers. 

A Suzuki V-Strom 800DE was spotted testing in India quite some time back now but the bike is yet to be officially launched here. Clearly Suzuki is considering its new middleweight parallel-twin engined platform for India and if the V-Strom does launch here it could potentially open the doors to the GSX-8S and the GSX-8R siblings. Given India’s affinity for faired big bikes, the 8R could make a case for itself.

Moto Morini unveiled some really interesting 750cc V-Twin engine-powered bikes in the Corsaro 750 and the Corsaro Sport, which could make their way to India once they officially launch in Europe although that’s still quite some time away.

Ultraviolette didn’t showcase any production-ready bike that's not already on sale in India at EICMA but it did say that it will start racing in 2024, although details on that front are scarce.

Last but certainly not least, Royal Enfield unveiled the all-new Himalayan to the global riding public and even showcased a fully-electric Him-E test bed for its future EV technologies. To read more about that, tap here.

All prices mentioned are ex-showroom, India.

Hero MotoCorp Xoom

₹ 82,730 * on road price (New Delhi)

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