The Royal Enfield Meteor 350 has been revealed as the UK’s best-selling full-size motorcycle above 125cc during the first seven months of 2022, toppling the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure from its long-held position.
Hitting UK roads in 2021, the Meteor 350 was the Indian firm’s first big launch since the similarly successful Interceptor 650.
While it stands relatively alone in the market as a low-capacity cruiser-cum-roadster, the Meteor 350 has certainly made a connection with UK customers with 1,135 examples finding homes between the start of January and the end of July.
Finding appeal with its retro design blended with contemporary cues, affordable price and simple but smart touches - such as its Tripper feature which transfers Maps apps from your phone directly onto the dashboard - the Meteor 350 has is just the latest UK success story for a rapidly expanding Royal Enfield.
Indeed, the Interceptor 650 was the fourth-best selling motorcycle above 125cc in the UK for the whole of 2021, though it is absent from these year-to-date rankings. As a comparison, Royal Enfield sells around 8-10,000 examples of the Meteor 350 in its native Indian market each month.
The Meteor was the first new model to emerge from Royal Enfield’s fresh 350cc single-cylinder platform. It has since been joined by the Classic 350, while a third spin-off, the sportier Hunter 350 got its world premiere this week.
Royal Enfield’s surge in popularity means the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure is - for the time being at least - not the UK’s favourite full-size motorcycle… though it only trails by a meagre six units.
Moreover, it’s something of a hollow win for Royal Enfield in that sense since the MCIA splits the GS Adventure and sister GS models when compiling its figures. With 999 examples of the GS also being sold during the first seven months of 2022, when combined with the GS Adventure’s figures, the German firm holds a substantial lead over the opposition.
Overall the Meteor 350, GS Adventure and GS are ranked fifth, sixth and seventh on the UK best-sellers list up to the end of July, sitting behind small capacity PTWs (powered two-wheelers).
Top of the pile is the Honda PCX 125, which regains the #1 spot it ceded to the Yamaha NMAX 125 in 2021. Over the year-to-date, Honda sold 2,139 examples of the PCX, compared with 1,407 sales of the NMAX.
Honda also sits third and fourth on the list with the Vision 110 and CB 125 F respectively, the latter the biggest-selling non-scooter in the UK. The Japanese giants are also eighth with the SH 125 scooter and ninth with the CRF 300 L off-roader.
The top ten is rounded off by the Yamaha MT-07, which succeeded in out-selling its homegrown rival, the Triumph Trident 660 with sales of 729 units.
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