Royal Enfield may sell a mind-boggling number of bikes per month in India, but its products haven’t been much more than a niche curiosity in mature markets in all these years. The new 650cc parallel-twin platform was designed to change that. Of course, success in the Indian market was important, but with this new platform, Royal Enfield was really eying the world at large. Now, less than two years after the bike was launched, the Interceptor 650 has swept to the top of UK’s motorcycle sales chart for the month of June 2020.

Monthly data shared by the MCIA, or Motorcycle Industry Association, shows that the Interceptor 650 sold 196 units in June 2020. This places the Interceptor 650 as the bestselling motorcycle in the market, second only to the highly popular Honda PCX 125 scooter, which sold 445 units. The Interceptor outsold every other competitor in the vast naked bike category, which the MCIA data lists as the most popular segment in the UK. The Enfield also edged out 2019’s bestseller, the BMW R 1250 GS to the top spot for motorcycles, with the GS having sold 188 units in June. 

Of course, these numbers are tiny compared to the immense volumes sold in our market, but they serve as an indication that Royal Enfield’s formula for the 650s has been a success. It must be at least 70 years, if not more, since Royal Enfield was last at the top of the British sales charts – something we’ve reached out to Royal Enfield historian Gordon May to confirm. Regardless, this will undoubtedly be a moment of great pride and accomplishment for the company. 

Beyond Royal Enfield’s accomplishment, the sales figures for June 2020 actually show a positive trend. Total sales of all two-wheelers, including scooters for June 2020 was revealed to be 12,520 units, which is a sizable 13.4 percent increase over the same period last year. Scooters particularly took a huge jump in sales numbers, to the tune of 46.6 percent. What this suggests is that the British public is moving towards two wheelers as an affordable form of personal mobility during the pandemic; this is something that’s ideal for affordable machines such as the Royal Enfield 650s.