Royal Enfield plans to install assembly plant in Latin America - Report

While Royal Enfield's domestic sales have witnessed negative growth for 11 consecutive months, its exports have seen healthy growth over the last year. The export numbers have been delivering promising numbers since late-2018, which incidentally is the same time when the Chennai-based two-wheeler brand introduced its new middleweight motorcycles – the Interceptor INT 650 and the Continental GT 650.

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Royal Enfield's exports have grown 125% in the first eight months (April-November) of FY2019-20. The company has expanded its global presence to 600 stores over the last five years.

Regular followers would already know that Royal Enfield is working on an assembly plant in Thailand. A new report from The Economic Times suggests that the new facility in Southeast Asia is likely to commence operations in the next six months. The report further adds that the company is also exploring to install a facility in Latin America.

With the new overseas facilities, Royal Enfield aims to bring down the cost in countries where the import tariffs are high. This would result in lower price tags, which could further boost exports. The Indian two-wheeler brand is currently looking for partners.

Royal Enfield's newly appointed chief executive, Vinod Dasari, told The Economic Times that the company expects the international markets to account for 20% of total revenue. Below is what Dasari said:

We will continue to bring in many more products. But I want to have faster growth on solutions and I want to have faster growth internationally. So, we’re going to invest a lot in both these things.

In other updates, Royal Enfield is working on new generation products that are likely to arrive post the BS-VI upgrade (i.e. April 2020). While the company is yet to reveal a launch timeline, a recent report claimed that the new vehicles could arrive by mid-2020. The same report further added that the two-wheeler brand will update its 350 cc range to comply with the new norms. Meanwhile, the company could axe its 500 cc range as it is said to be ‘unviable for the domestic market’.

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The new-generation bikes would use four platforms – P, J, Q and K. The J architecture will underpin the entry-level models like Classic, Thunderbird, Bullet and Himalayan. The P platform is reserved for middleweight motorcycles, while the Q and K architecture will be used for higher displacement models.

[Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com]