Honda has decided to stop selling the CBR600RR in the European market by the end of this year. This call was taken as the current model won’t meet the Euro 4 emission norms and noise standards that’ll come into effect from January 1, 2017.
This information didn’t come from Honda as an official statement, but was given by MCN’s Japanese sources. And we think this wouldn’t be wrong considering the fact that the sales and market for the 600cc supersport machines have gone down considerably over the last couple of years. The cost of developing a 600cc supersport machine is almost the same cost as the 1000cc bikes. The expertise and engineering needs of both the class are the same, and that’s where the problem lies. With increase in development costs, the price of such bikes are pushed towards the higher side – close to the litre class. So for customers it makes more sense to opt the 1000cc bikes, instead of sticking to the middle-weight.
The cost incurred to upgrade the CBR600RR is pretty high and the sales won’t justify that. So the honchos at Japan have decided to kill this legendary bike at least for the European market. It’ll continue to sell the CBR600RR in other markets, where the Euro 4 norms aren’t present. It’s sad to see such an important bike being taken off from a big market, but profits are more important.
