Enthusiasts have been fervently hoping that the Honda NX500 will come to India, post its unveil at EICMA 2023. We can now confirm that it is indeed going to be launched very soon. A dealer message has been circulating on social media regarding the NX500’s India launch, and the bike will join the Transalp 750 and the Africa Twin in Honda’s ADV tourer line-up in India.
The Honda NX500 is powered by the same liquid-cooled 471cc, parallel-twin engine found in the erstwhile CB500X, and it is rated for 47.5hp and 43Nm in this application. At 196kg, the NX500 weighs about the same as the new Royal Enfield Himalayan and it has a seat height of 830mm.
Unlike the CB500X and other rivals in this space, the NX500 uses twin disc brakes at the front. Braking hardware is supplied by Nissin and dual-channel ABS is standard. Another change to the CB500X is the 5-inch TFT dash found on the NX500.
The last recorded price for the CB500X was Rs 5.79 lakh just before it was silently discontinued, so we expect the new NX500 to be priced similarly, if not more. The bike will be available in two colours – red and black – and deliveries are believed to begin as soon as February or March.
At that expected price, the Honda NX500 will sit closer to something like the Kawasaki Versys 650 (Rs 7.77 lakh) than competitors like the Royal Enfield Himalayan (Rs 2.85 lakh-2.98 lakh, ex-showroom, Chennai) and the KTM 390 Adventure (Rs 2.81 lakh-3.61 lakh).
