Royal Enfield Interceptor & Continental GT 650 waiting periods to get shorter: Here’s why

royaIndian Retro-motrorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield had launched their very anticipated twin cylinder motorcycle Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 in India last year and ever since then the demand has been rising. After the waiting period shot up to six months Royal Enfield is now planning to double the production of their 650 twins. Delivery numbers of the two bikes have been on the lower side, at below 500 units a month. Company officials said this was because the first deliveries were for dealership display and test ride purposes.

Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Eicher Motors said,

From the current rate of around 2,500 a month we will double production of the 650 twins to 4,500-5,000 units a month by end of March.

Royal Enfield had launched the 650 twins in the international markets even before launching it in India. Exports to Australia, Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia and other markets have already started. The gradual ramp-up in output in addition to simultaneous demand from overseas markets has pushed waiting period of the two bikes to six months.

More than 70 percent of Royal Enfield’s sales come from the 350cc models dominated by the Classic range. Bigger capacity bikes have failed to register healthy numbers for Royal Enfield and even company was forced to phase out Continental GT due to lower popularity in the past.

Royal Enfield had launched the Interceptor 650 and the Continental GT 650 motorcycles in India at very competitive price. Prices of the Interceptor start from Rs. 2.34 lakhs, and that of the Continental GT 650 start from Rs. 2.57 lakhs. This makes it the cheapest twin-cylinder motorcycles available on sale in India.

It gets a 648-cc parallel-twin, air-cooled engine which will churn out maximum power of 47 bhp at 7,100 rpm and peak torque of 52 Nm at 4,000 rpm. It is paired to a 6 speed manual gearbox with a slipper clutch as standard. No other Royal Enfield has ever received these features. A double cradle frame holds the motorcycles together, and also gives them sharp handling. Coming to other modern bits on the Royal Enfield Continental GT 650 and Interceptor 650, the bikes get disc brakes on both wheels, with dual channel ABS as standard.