Last year, Royal Enfield said it is working on a portfolio of electric vehicles, and although the management did not give an exact timeline, they said that it would not be in the current financial year.
- Ex-Ola, ex-Ducati personnel hired for RE’s EV business
- e-bikes will take more time to become popular than e-scooters
- Initially RE EVs will be built at current plant, then Cheyyar
Royal Enfield is building a dedicated commercial team to drive its electric vehicle business under a separate vertical. “We are in the process of developing a very strong commercial team dedicated to electric vehicles, a separate vertical,” Eicher Motors' managing director Siddhartha Lal told reporters in a post-earnings call.
The company has an electric vehicle development team with a few hundred engineers, led by Umesh Krishnappa, former CTO of Ola Electric. Royal Enfield has also hired Mario Alvisi, previously with Ducati, as chief growth officer for the electric vehicle business.
“Last year, we have made long strides in the EV journey, with a full product plan and the future road map of the product,” Lal said. The company believes electric motorcycles would take more time to be in the mainstream than electric scooters. Currently, there is no traction for electric motorcycles and it could be the case till batteries become lighter, cheaper and smaller in packaging.
“I believe we have something interesting coming up, which should tackle some parts of this,” Lal said.
Last year, at the EICMA two-wheeler show in Italy, Royal Enfield showcased a Himalayan EV prototype, which was said to serve as a test bed for the company to try out its new electric powertrains and other components.
Our sister publication, Autocar Professional, had exclusively reported that Royal Enfield has made significant progress on two products – L1A and L1K. L1A could be amongst the lightest vehicle architectures developed based on the Flying Flea concept; a petrol motorcycle that the British Army used during World War 2.
Eicher Motors has also acquired around a 10 percent stake in Spanish high-performance electric motorcycle maker, Stark Future, with plans to co-develop electric motorcycles. Royal Enfield is expected to initially manufacture its electric vehicles from its existing facility, before expanding into a new factory in Cheyyar.
With inputs from Ketan Thakkar
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
