Royal Enfield Working On Boosting Production To Cut Wait Times on 650 Twins

• Published On: 28 June 2019
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Royal Enfield reduces wait time for upcoming 650 twins.

Royal Enfield took the market by storm last year after it first launched the new Interceptor and Continental GT 650 in the US and then in India. The new bikes have been an instant hit with the customers and this has resulted in the Indian retro bike maker taking a lot of bookings for the newly launched 650 twins. The booking numbers are so high that some places in India are witnessing the surge in waiting periods for Continental GT 650 and Interceptor 650 up to 6 months. The production by the company of these bikes hovers around the 2,500 unit mark per month. This also includes the units that the retro bike maker exports for sales outside India. However, there is good news for prospective customers of the 650 twins as according to reports on the internet, the company is all set to double the production of 650 twins and take it to the mark of 5,000 units per month.

This move will result in lower waiting periods for the customers who have either already booked the bike or are planning to buy one. The waiting periods are an indicator of the success of the 650 twins in the market. Take the competition into account and then the immense popularity of the bike comes to the light, the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 are not only the most affordable twin-cylinder models in the retro bike maker Royal Enfield’s line-up, they are currently also the most affordable twin-cylinder engine bikes in the entire country. With the Interceptor’s prices starting at only 2.37 lakhs, its nearest competitor in the twin-cylinder segment is the Kawasaki Ninja 300, and the Japanese bike is priced at 2.98 lakhs. Even models such as the KTM Duke 390 or TVS Apache RR310 (both single-cylinder engine) are pricier than the Interceptor 650.

If one takes into account the retro nature of the bikes, the competition gets even more one-sided as the twin-cylinder engine bikes with retro looks cost more than twice the price of Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 in the Indian market. It is not just people who are out for a twin-cylinder bike that are buying the 650 twins, even existing retro bike owners who own Royal Enfield bikes are looking at the 650 twins as a very logical and affordable upgrade from their current single-cylinder engine retro bikes.

As far as the specs of the 650 twins are concerned, the company worked hard to develop a new 647cc, parallel twin engine for the Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650. Equipped with an engine that is mostly vibration free, and revs smoothly, the bikes come rated for producing 47 Bhp-52 Nm. Apart from the 6-speed gearbox and slipper clutch as standard, the bikes also come equipped with ABS on both wheels as standard.  The market’s response to the bikes has been great and as already mentioned, there is a long waiting period on these bikes.