Royal Enfield, which has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary to take over its North American operations, will be launching three models in 2016 in the US and Canada, besides appointing dealers in nearly a hundred cities by the end of the year.
The 115-year-old company, a division of Eicher Motors Ltd, will be launching the Continental GT, the Classic and the Bullet in North America. Royal Enfield bikes were being distributed in the US by Classic Motor Works, but from the New Year it has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary to run its North America operations.
Rod Copes, president, Royal Enfield North America, told a US publication that the company has grown at more than 50 per cent year-on-year for the past five years. The former Harley-Davidson executive said that Royal Enfield, with bikes averaging 500cc, aims to attract new American bikers and current bikers. “We think it’s a very exciting time for Royal Enfield,” he said.
In 2015, Royal Enfield recorded remarkable growth, expanding sales by 50 per cent. It sold 450,000 bikes. Exports went up by 33 per cent to 8,285 units. The company, which is expanding production capacity to 48,000 units a month from 45,000 bikes to meet growing demand, hopes to ramp up capacity to 620,000 units in 2016.
Royal Enfield plans to set up a third plant at its Oragadam manufacturing facility near Chennai, which would boost its production capacity to 900,000 units in about two years.
Source : BS Motoring
