Hero to launch Karizma XMR 210 in India on August 29

Just days after a design patent of the new Karizma XMR 210 surfaced, the company has now announced that the all-new bike will be launched in India on August 29.

The launch of the new Karizma XMR will mark the return of the Karizma name after over three years. At its peak, the Hero Honda Karizma enjoyed a massive following, and a lot of it was down to the VFR-inspired big-bike looks and the refined 223cc engine at its heart. But despite Hero's attempts to keep the model alive after its split with Honda, the later ZMR guise of the Karizma never really caught on, and was eventually resigned to the history books.

Back in the day, the Karizma was comfortably the quickest, most capable bike in Hero Honda's line-up, and perhaps, Hero is going for the same strategy this time around by giving the bike a new liquid-cooled engine to achieve this. The Karizma XMR 210 has been spotted testing numerous times previously, and a production-spec bike was also previewed to dealers a few months back.

Considering that Hero always prices its products aggressively, we expect it to be positioned around the Rs 1.8 lakh mark (ex-showroom). The upcoming Karizma XMR will rival the hugely popular Yamaha R15 V4 (Rs 1.81 lakh-1.94 lakh) and the Suzuki Gixxer SF 250 (Rs 1.92 lakh-2.02 lakh).