Comments
Royal Enfield on Tuesday inaugurated its greenfield manufacturing facility at Oragadam near Chennai.
The total capacity of the plant is five lakh motorcycles a year. The company has invested Rs 150 crore in the first phase.
This is the company’s first facility in 60 years. The construction of the facility began in February last year. Trial production began in January this year.
Royal Enfield already has a plant in Thiruvottiyur, Chennai. Last year, the company produced 1.13 lakh motorcycles. With the new facility, the combined production is expected to touch 1.75 lakh units this year. Next year, the target is 2.50 lakh units, said Siddartha Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors, which owns Royal Enfield.
The second plant will begin with the production of Desert Storm and Thunderbird vehicles. By the end of the year, the company expects the entire range including the Bullet and Classic, said Lal.
Exports from the plant are also on the cards, he said. The company already exports to over 40 countries from its Thiruvottiyur plant.
Royal Enfield plays in the 350-500 cc motorcycle market. “We enjoy a 90 per cent share in the 350 cc market in India. We need to reinvent our product range and get into new products and improve global distribution,” said Lal.
With the new facility, the company also hopes the waiting period for its vehicles will come down from eight months now to six-seven months by the end of the year.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.