Honda H’ness CB350 vs Royal Enfield Meteor 350: Sales Numbers Compared

Has Honda managed to make a dent in the Chennai manufacturer’s sales figures?

Honda surprised us all by launching the H’ness CB350 earlier this year to directly take on Royal Enfield at its own game. On paper, the CB certainly seems to have the goods to take the fight to the likes of the Classic 350 and Meteor 350, but Honda’s refusal to give us a test bike means we have no idea what it’s really like to ride. The Royal Enfield Meteor 350 is also an all-new motorcycle just like the H’ness, and it too recently completed one full month on sale. So let’s see how the two bikes fared in terms of sales figures.

Launched on the final day of September, the Honda H’ness managed to find 1,290 buyers in its first full month on sale, with 1,000 bikes being delivered within just 20 days of the launch (and yet not a single media test bike to set aside!) The second month has seen CB350 sales triple to cross the 4,000 mark in November 2020, indicating a pretty strong start for Honda.

Or at least it seems strong until you come to the Meteor. Royal Enfield put its newest bike on sale on November 6, and despite missing out on those first five days of the month, the bike was ridden home by over 7,000 buyers in the first month alone. That means in just one month, Royal Enfield has been able to sell more Meteors than Honda has been able to sell CB350s in two months.

Of course, one of the biggest factors here is the H’ness’ tiny BigWing sales network compared to Royal Enfield’s gargantuan nationwide web of showrooms, leading to a David vs Goliath battle. So all things considered, the H’ness is doing pretty well, but if Honda wants to really cause Royal Enfield some bother, it’s going to need to increase the availability of the CB350. One look at the Classic 350’s humongous November sales figure of 39,391 is all you need to drive this point home.