Royal Enfield is gearing up for its first electric bike launch.

Royal Enfield, a subsidiary of Eicher Motors, is working on its first electric bike for the Indian market. The company expects to launch the product in the next two years.

“We have a team working on the prototype and the business aspects of this segment. We are looking at a two-year timeline for our product,” Siddhartha Lal, managing director & CEO, Eicher Motors, said during a media interaction after the Q1 earnings call on Thursday.

The company has allocated a capex of around INR 1,000 crore for 2013- 24, which includes some investment for product development and sales infrastructure for EVs.

B Govindarajan, CEO, Royal Enfield said the company has already recruited about 100 people for the electric vehicle domain. It is also setting up a modular production capacity of 1.5 lakh EV units and is “in full speed of execution”.

Market share and competition

Royal Enfield has been ruling the premium motorcycle segment in India with its Classic and Bullet models. It currently commands about 90% share of the market above the 250 cc motorcycle segment.

Last month, Bajaj-Triumph launched two 400cc models in India namely Speed 400 and Scrambler 400. Harley Davidson also introduced the X440, developed with Hero Motocorp.

When asked about the increasing competition in the mid-size motorcycle segment (250 to 750 cc), Lal said, “We are aware that our market share will go down from 90% as new players enter the segment. But we are okay with that. We are ahead of the curve and we believe that we will be able to maintain 80% share in the medium to long term.”

Also read: https://www.carbike360.com/news/royal-enfield-sales-report-july-2023

He added that more competition will help expand the mid-size motorcycle market. When there are new products in the market, there is more excitement and the overall market will grow, expected to reach 1.5 to 2 million units in the next decade.

Q1 results and global expansion

Eicher Motors reported a 50% increase in its consolidated net profit to INR 918 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2023. The company had posted a net profit of INR 611 crore in the same quarter of last fiscal.Total revenue from operations rose to INR 3,986 crore in Q1 FY24 as compared to INR 3,397 crore in the same quarter of last year.

“Q1 has been remarkable for Eicher Motors as both Royal Enfield and VECV have achieved their best ever first quarter performance, and have recorded tremendous growth,” Lal said.

As we continue to strengthen our product portfolio we have some really exciting and amazing motorcycles being launched in the forthcoming quarters," he added.

Royal Enfield sold 2.2 lakh motorcycles in the first quarter, registering a growth of 21% from 1.86 lakh units in the same quarter of last year.

Globally, the mid-weight motorcycle maker opened its fifth CKD assembly unit outside India in Birgunj, Nepal. Spread over 1-lakh sq ft, the Local Assembly Unit is aimed to boost the company’s business in the SAARC region.