Royal Enfield is gearing up for the launch of its much-anticipated flagship adventure motorcycle, the Himalayan 750. Recently spied undergoing testing in Europe, the bike appears to be in its developmental stages, with an official launch likely slated for 2026.

The Himalayan 750 is set to redefine Royal Enfield’s adventure-touring lineup, presenting a robust middleweight ADV that draws inspiration from models like the Husqvarna Norden 901. While heavily camouflaged during testing, the motorcycle’s design reveals a tall stance typical of ADVs, complete with a round LED headlight, a short windscreen, and quarter fairings—marking a first for Royal Enfield in this segment.

Design and features

The profile of the Himalayan 750 closely resembles its smaller sibling, the Himalayan 450. It boasts a split-seat design, an upswept two-in-one exhaust, and LED indicators doubling as taillights. The motorcycle’s ergonomics suggest a rider-friendly upright position suitable for long-distance touring.

A standout addition is the aluminum bash plate, signaling the bike’s rugged intentions. The spied test mule features a 19-inch front and 17-inch rear spoked wheels, leaning towards road-oriented touring capabilities. However, the possibility of off-road variants with a 21-inch front wheel remains uncertain.

Powertrain and performance

At the heart of the Himalayan 750 is a new 750 cc parallel-twin engine, potentially liquid-cooled, and distinct from Royal Enfield’s existing 650 cc platform. Although performance figures remain under wraps, the engine is expected to deliver a significant boost over the 650’s 47 hp and 52 Nm output. A 6-speed gearbox with a slip-and-assist clutch is anticipated, ensuring smoother gear transitions for touring enthusiasts.

Suspension and braking

The bike features an all-new frame, chassis, and swingarm. It includes twin front disc brakes, a single rear disc, and adjustable USD front forks complemented by a monoshock at the rear. Suspension travel is expected to hover around 200 mm, balancing on-road comfort and light off-road capability.

Tech-savvy flagship

Royal Enfield seems poised to equip the Himalayan 750 with advanced features, including full LED lighting, switchable ABS, traction control, and a rectangular digital display. Speculations suggest the possibility of riding modes, further enhancing its touring credentials.

Competing in a growing market

Once launched, the Himalayan 750 will occupy the flagship position in Royal Enfield’s adventure lineup. It aims to rival models like the Triumph Tiger Sport 660 and the anticipated BMW F 450 GS, both prominent contenders in the mid-range ADV market.

With the Himalayan 750, Royal Enfield seeks to strengthen its hold in the growing adventure-touring segment, offering a blend of performance, features, and affordability. Fans and industry watchers eagerly await more details as the bike progresses closer to production.

Maruti Suzuki India finally launched the new Maruti Suzuki Swift hatchback in India with prices starting Rs 6.49 lakh (ex-showroom) onwards. The bookings for the new Swift are already underway, interested customers can book it online or by visiting their car dealer.

The booking amount for a brand new Maruti Suzuki Swift hatchback is Rs 11000. Test drives and deliveries are going to begin from May 12 onwards. The new Maruti Suzuki Swift is being offered in 5 variants: VXi, LXi, and ZXI Plus, DT ZXi plus with prices ranging from Rs 6.49 lakh to Rs 9.64 lakh (ex-showroom) onwards.

The new Swift is available in 9 exterior colour options with 3 dual – tone and 2 new luster blue and noval orange colours. The company is also offering Thrill Chaser and Racing Roadstar accessory packages which add cosmetic changes inside-out.

The new Maruti Suzuki Swift in its 4^th generation is a heavily updated version of the 3^rd generation platform and comes with a new design, new engine, improved dynamics and an updated interior layout with new features and safety. The new Swift is 40mm narrower, 15mm longer and 30 mm taller than the old model. The wheel base remains the same at 2450 mm.

The front bumper of the new Maruti Suzuki Swift has been re-designed with a new grille and comes with chunky black surrounds which also features re-designed smoked LED headlamps along with DRLs. The Maruti Suzuki Swift also gets the revised fog lamp which is housed with a splitter.

The clamshell bonnet of the new Maruti Suzuki Swift is a lot shallower and the door handles, the sides for the rear doors are back to their conventional location, instead of the C-pillar the new Maruti Suzuki Swift hatchback also comes with designed 15-inch alloy wheels. Prominent character lines can be seen running across the door panels.

Kia India has expanded its Seltos lineup with the launch of new 6-speed manual transmission variants with diesel engine options. Priced between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 18.28 lakh, ex-showroom, these trims expand the Seltos lineup to a total of 24 variants. The new diesel trims with MT and is available in 5 options THE, HTK, HTK+,HTX, HTX+.

The 116 hp, 250 Nm diesel motor was earlier offered only with an option of a 6-speed iMT and a 6-speed automatic gearbox. The Seltos, one of the most popular Kia SUVs in India, received a facelift in July 2023 and has since achieved notable success, reaching 65,000 units in sales to date.

Since its 2019 debut, the model range has sold 6 lakh units in domestic and international markets, contributing more than 51% to Kia India’s total domestic dispatches. In fact on the global level, one out of every 10 Kia cars sold is a Seltos.

The South Korean carmaker has expanded the transmission options for the model not long after the launch of the updated Hyundai Creta, which gets six diesel MT variants priced between Rs 12.45 lakh and Rs 18.74 lakh. Both prices are ex-showroom.

The new Seltos offers 32 safety features, a Level 2 ADAS suite with upto 17 features, a twin 10.25-inch display for infotainment and instrumentation, dual zone automatic air conditioner, and 18-inch crystal cut alloy wheels. Additional features include a dual-pane panoramic sunroof and electric parking brake among others.

Kia has not introduced this powertrain option on the Seltos GT Line and X-Line variants. Bookings for the Seltos diesel-MT are currently open, with deliveries slated to commence next month. In a bid to push more iMT gearbox-equipped SUVs, Kia had slowly pulled the plug on the Seltos diesel-manual from the Indian market last year. However sales of the iMT models haven’t been on par with the manual gearbox equipped models in general.