Rumors of a new Kawasaki ZX-6R gain strength
Published on 28 Jun 2012 by Adriano
0 Comments from Readers
With the current version of the Kawasaki ZX-6R now in its fourth year of existance, the first rumors of a new model have began to circulate and, according to some sources, the new little Ninja might already appear by the end of this year. The point is that the last two generations of the ZX-6R were aesthetically very similar to their bigger ’sister’ ZX-10R which, traditionally, got introduced a year in advance, but since the latest ZX-10R has been around for a couple of years now, it seems like the time id right for a new version of the sporty Kwak 600 to see the light of the day.
Nowadays, the market for 600 cc sportsbikes - the ones that compete in the Supersport class - is undoubtedly in a period of stagnation, which led to significant drops in sales in both Europe and America. This negative trand is also mirrored by the commercial policies adopted by the big Japanese manufacturers in this specific segment of the market: the Honda CBR600RR has not been updated since 2009, when they performed a few minor changes as well as adding the ABS, but the actual ‘base’ of the project has remained virtually unchanged since 2007, while the Yamaha R6 is virtually the same since 2008. Suzuki is basically the only exception as the latest GSX-R600 got launched in 2011.
Thereby, in practice, the current ZX-6R is still younger than most of its main rivals, and this might turn out to be a crucial element for the strategy that Kawasaki will adopt in taking on this nich of the market: developing a new sporty 600 surely requires some investment, and they might want to think twice about it as a proper return in terms of sheer profit might not be that sure as it would have been a few years back. However, more than one source report they are going to go that way anyway, so let’s just hope the new Ninja 6 will be as good as its punchy pedecessors.
Categories
Similar topics
Similar topics
Follow
Post a comment