One lakh new Triumphs, Harleys to hit the road in a year

The entry of global iconic brands Harley-Davidson and Triumph into the hotly contested 1 million unit-strong Indian midsize motorcycle market is set to ruffle feathers of market leader, Royal Enfield.

According to several people in the know, both these iconic brands, with their respective Indian partners, have a plan to produce about 1-1.2 lakh units in less than a year. This may potentially eat into Royal Enfield’s large volume, which has a share of over 85-90 percent in the midsize motorcycle market.

1. About 90 percent of this output is planned for India
2. Royal Enfield will make 70,000-80,000 units a month
3. J-platform Bullet 350 launching in August 

Assuming a market growth of 15 percent per annum, the entry of these global behemoths should expand the pie, but it is also certain that both these brands are going to wean away prospective Royal Enfield buyers, thereby creating a dent in the market share. This could potentially lead to an erosion of 7-9 percent of RE’s massive piece of the pie.

According to sources, Bajaj Auto is eyeing volumes of 10,000 units a month of the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400 X combined, come October. This is excluding the numbers for the export markets.

Given the fact that the Triumph has received over 10,000 bookings within just a few days of announcing the Speed 400’s price, its manufacturing partner Bajaj had shared that the company is ramping up capacity to cater to the high demand.

In the same timeframe, Hero and Harley Davidson have plans of producing about 25,000-30,000 units.

Interestingly, Royal Enfield, on its part, is not slowing down, and has plans to produce 70,000-80,000 units per month with the sustained demand for Hunter and Classic as well as cater to demand for the soon-to-be-launched new J-platform Bullet 350.