Royal Enfield consolidates presence in key international markets

To help bring its electric bike plans to fruition, RE has hired ex-Ducati personnel, Mario Alvisi, as Chief Growth Officer.

Published On Aug 31, 2023 04:40:00 PM

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At a time when global brands like Triumph and Harley-Davidson are entering the Indian market to challenge Royal Enfield's dominance, the Chennai-based bikemaker is aggressively expanding its share in the rivals’ home turf, namely the UK and the US.

In key Asian markets, RE in top three
Royal Enfield will enter Bangladesh soon
Ex-Ducati alum Mario Alvisi has been hired for EV business

Royal Enfield was the largest selling mid-size motorcycle brand in the UK – Triumph’s homeland – selling one in every five middle-weight bikes (250-750cc) in Great Britain. Meanwhile, in North America, the home of Harley-Davidson, the brand has already captured 8 percent of the mid-size motorcycle segment last year.

With over 1 lakh motorcycles shipped in FY23, Royal Enfield has been rising up the charts in many other international markets. For instance, in South Korea, it is number one, in Thailand, it is number two, and in Austria, France and Italy, it is number three.

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Royal Enfield has a network of over 1,000 stores globally, and it assembles motorcycles in five different bases – namely Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Thailand, and Nepal. Very soon, the company will also be adding another assembly plant in Bangladesh.

B Govindarajan, CEO, says the company has been focused on establishing a base in many of these markets over several years, and has delivered on a “premium motorcycling ownership experience”, right from communication and distribution, to events that it does with customers, which has started to pay off.

Mario Alvisi, ex-Ducati, Alfa Romeo alum joins RE EV business

Royal Enfield has hired Mario Alvisi as Chief Growth Officer for its electric vehicle business as it builds a core senior leadership team to carve a space for itself in the zero-emission vehicle space.

Having created a dedicated EV unit, the company has been bringing in key personnel to prepare the roadmap for the future. This is the second key appointment since the hiring of CTO Umesh Krishnappa, who is working on a dedicated electric vehicle portfolio for the company. Alvisi will be in charge of EV business, branding, go to market and product strategy. He will report to Govindarajan.

Siddhartha Lal, MD of Eicher Motors, said, “Mario has got an amazing track record – so we all will be working together and he will oversee the commercial side of the business. It is a new growth segment for us and he will be a dedicated person for us to build the EV business.”

He will be working very closely with Mark Wells, who is the Chief of Design at Royal Enfield, ensuring that there is a strong differentiation with the petrol engine portfolio.

Alvisi is a Ducati veteran with decades of experience in the automotive industry, having worked with well-known brands like Abarth and Alfa Romeo. He took on the post at RE in July and he will be based out of Chennai.

Royal Enfield has been steadily building its team and portfolio of products that are meant to be global in nature and hence, the company is bringing in global talent, say people in the know. Sources say, Royal Enfield is likely to invest over Rs 1,500 crore in its EV business, and has already acquired additional land in Cheyyar to ready its manufacturing footprint for the future.

While the company was non-committal on specific investments, Govindarajan said that Eicher Motors has applied for PLI scheme, which is an investment of Rs 2,000 crore for both Royal Enfield and the commercial vehicle business. The first EV from Royal Enfield is scheduled for 2025 and already, various prototypes of EVs, which the company claims to be differentiated (from the ICE models), have been tested.

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