Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 wins the 2019 Indian Motorcycle of the Year award

The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 has won India's most prestigious two-wheeler award, the 2019 IMOTY or Indian Motorcycle of the Year award. The IMOTY is in fact the most authoritative two-wheeler award in the country, considering that its jury comprises of the most experienced and most eminent two-wheelers journalists from India who represent the country's top automotive publications, including OVERDRIVE. The Interceptor 650 has been received well by journalists and enthusiasts alike and is being hailed as the best product from Royal Enfield yet with its kind of engine refinement, performance as also the impressive build quality. Its win this year has been a landslide victory over other contenders in fact, especially the second placed Yamaha YZF-R15 V3 and third placed TVS Apache RR 310. The new generation TVS Apache RTR 160 4V finished a close fourth behind its elder sibling.

The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 has won the highly coveted Indian Motorcycle of the Year award for 2019

The list of contenders for the 2019 IMOTY was an impressive one on the whole with a host of interesting motorcycles getting launched in 2018, of which the jury shortlisted 12 motorcycles. For motorcycles to be eligible for the Indian Motorcycle of the Year award, bikes need to be launched between December 1st of the previous year and November 30th of the current year and are judged on various parameters like relevance to the Indian two-wheeler market and value for money apart from technical parameters like design, engine performance, efficiency, dynamics and practicality. This year's jury comprised of Abhik Das and Rahul Ghosh from Auto Today, Arup Das and Jared Solomon from AutoX, Devesh Shobha and Debabrata Sarkar from Top Gear India, Aspi Bhathena and Sarmad Kadiri from Bike India, Aninda Sardar and Sirish Chandran from evo India, Pablo Chaterji from Man's World, Kartik Ware and Raunak Ajinkya from Motoring World, Abhay Verma and Shubhabrata Marmar from OVERDRIVE and Vikrant Singh of bikewale.com. Shumi is also chairman of the IMOTY jury.

Siddhartha Lal, CEO, Royal Enfield along with the 2019 IMOTY jury after winning the prestigious award

The IMOTY trophy was handed over by Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director of JK Tyre and Industries Limited at a gala dinner event held in Mumbai to Siddhartha Lal, CEO, Royal Enfield on behalf of the jury. JK Tyre has been associated with and has been sponsoring the IMOTY award ceremony right from the inception of the award in 2007. As chairman of the jury Shumi handed over a winner's certificate to Siddhartha Lal, signed by all the jury members. Shumi also took the opportunity to announce the institution of a new award starting from 2020, which will be called the ISOTY or Indian Scooter of the Year award in a bid to recognise the rapidly increasing importance of scooters in the Indian market. While judging parameters for the ISOTY will be similar to the IMOTY's, a minimum of five scooters will need to be launched in the corresponding year for the award to be given out.

The importance of the IMOTY has been growing increasingly with each passing year and along with the ICOTY (Indian Car of the Year) award it is recognised as the most coveted auto award in the country. The introduction of the Indian Scooter of the Year award should only help in adding to the importance of these prestigious awards.

Also see: Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 & Continental GT 650 | First Ride