Royal Enfield Meteor 350
From out of nowhere Royal Enfield’s new 350cc Meteor is set to wreak havoc on the tiddler market, with a little help from Google…
Enfield are already kings of unglamourous big-sellers. The 410cc Himalayan took the company’s European sales from 3400 to 6300 in 2018, then the 650cc Interceptor and Continental raised the bar to 11,000 sales in 2019. And now it’s the turn of the Meteor, an all-new 350cc single-cylinder cruiser with built-in Google powered sat nav and the same impressive build quality as the big-selling 650 twins. Enfield’s head of product development Simon Warburton tells Bike why we should be excited.
» Who is this aimed at in the UK?
We think it will appeal to plenty of people, especially in urban areas. But it is a toe in the water. We’ve been surprised before though – we thought the Himalayan might be a bit underpowered for European and North American customers [it makes 25bhp], but it’s done much better than we thought. Customers don’t always want the bigger, flashier bikes. We expect to see plenty of riders with less experience buying into the Meteor, but we’re keen to say that it’s not just for those people.
» Why a cruiser rather than a cafe racer or roadster?
It was conceived as a replacement for the Thunderbird [a cruiser], which we’ve sold in India and elsewhere for years. We’ve had a lot of success with the 350cc capacity in India [this is something of an understatement – Enfield have a 96% market share of India’s 250-750cc segment and most of the 697,582 bikes they sold in 2019 were in India].
» The bike has a mini TFT screen with Google-powered sat nav. How did that come about?
When it was first proposed, lots of people questioned whether it was too high-end to put on a bike at this price level. And it was a huge challenge because we didn’t have that kind of experience – it took a long time. In the motorcycle world we’re getting up there near the top, but for Google it was ‘who are you?’.
» How can you maintain quality when selling at just £3749?
Obviously the 650 twin engine costs a lot more than the 350 single, but in terms of build quality and reliability they are exactly the same. The 350 will last just as long. The frame just is not going to rust – it’s electroplated and then powder coated. Obviously there are some savings – for example, the Interceptor has two clocks while this has one plus the [Google] turn screen. But in terms of durability some of the standards are higher because we expect the 350 to be given a harder time. No corners have been cut. It’s a proper motorcycle.
‘Standards are higher on the smaller bike. No corners have been cut. It’s a proper motorcycle’