Rivals of Royal Enfield are concentrating more on the high-end motorcycle market: Lal Siddhartha

Rivals of Royal Enfield are concentrating more on the high-end motorcycle market: Lal Siddhartha

After enjoying a long-standing near monopoly in the 250–750cc motorcycle segment, the firm lately had to contend with competition from new models, including the Bajaj Pulsar 400, Hero Mavrick 440, Harley Davidson 440X, and Triumph Speed 400.

CEO and Managing Director of Eicher Motors Ltd. is Siddhartha Lal.

In a post-earnings conference call on May 11, MD and CEO of Eicher Motors Limited Siddhartha Lal told reporters that the increased competition in the middleweight motorcycle market over the past few months, including from firms like Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, and TVS Motor Company, has had little effect on Royal Enfield's volumes.  The main business that owns the Royal Enfield name is called Eicher Motors Limited (EML).

Lal continued, saying that the industry has grown and that the luxury motorbike category is now receiving more attention due to the rising rivalry from other manufacturers (250–750 cc models).

"Everyone of our KPIs, including reservations, inquiries, and so forth, has been getting better.  More competition, he said, means that people are more aware of the advantages that Royal Enfield offers.

Royal Enfield presently has an 85% market share in the 250-750cc motorcycle segment thanks to its popular models such as the Himalayan, Meteor, Bullet, Classic, Interceptor, Shotgun, etc.

After enjoying a long-standing near monopoly in this market, the business is now up against competition from the Bajaj Auto-made Triumph Speed 400 and Scrambler 400x, the Hero MotoCorp-made Harley Davidson 440X, the Hero Mavrick 440, and the Bajaj Pulsar 400.

It's vital to compete. In India, the market for motorcycles larger than 250cc was less than 1% when we embarked on our adventure in 2010.  Currently, that market's share of the two-wheeler market is just around ten percent, which is still a little portion of the whole market.  It would be fantastic if we could maintain our current market share even if that market shrank to 20%. New players will enable us to expand the market, as Lal highlighted.

RE sold 9,12,732 units in FY24, a 9% increase over the 834,895 units sold in FY23.

According to Lal, the business achieved record sales despite rivals launching new products. As you can see, in spite of the competition, we're selling more than ever. Therefore, it shouldn't be a problem right now, Lal said.

Lal responded, "We have lots of interesting motorcycles planned, I obviously can't tell you what's coming when," when asked if the Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 would be introduced to compete with the other models. He also stated that the company intends to grow its premium two-wheeler segment at a rate twice as fast as the industry.

We're not willing to give up on progress. Our goal is to expand far quicker than the industry. That is our goal. to expand more quickly in the long run—possibly even at a pace twice as fast as the industry as a whole," Lal said.

Lal said that in the current fiscal year, EML would make a capital expenditure of Rs 1,200 crore in Royal Enfield.