Mid-size motorcycle segment in India is in a sweet spot, Royal Enfield to roll out e-bike by 2025: Siddhartha Lal
Siddhartha Lal, managing director, Eicher Motors.
Speaking a day before the launch of the iconic Royal Enfield Bullet on Friday, Lal said India already accounts for half the mid-weight motorcycles (250-750 cc) globally. “We saw (early on) that markets like India will become more premium with affordability going up,” he said.
“We also saw that peak (performance) motorcycle had been reached in Western markets (where customers wanted lesser horsepower), the demographic was changing (people are getting older) and there was a bit more pressure on the wallets than in the heydays of the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s. So all that also pointed us to the fact that there people will be downsizing a bit in (Western) markets, like they’ll be upsizing in India.”
The mid-weight motorcycle segment – which Royal Enfield dominates in the country with more than 90% share – is in a “sweet spot”, said Lal, “We are seeing this as an opportunity to further grow the market.
We have been able to grow it to about a million units. It will grow over twice the speed of the regular (commuter) market over the next 10 years.
In the next five years, it could double,” he said.
Sales of motorcycles with engine capacity ranging between 250 cc and 750 cc increased to 791,878 units in 2022-23, 38% more than 574,675 in the previous year, more than double the overall two-wheeler category, showed data available with the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). Royal Enfield saw sales increase 41% to 734,840 units in 2022-23.
