Royal Enfield will not make India a ‘top priority’ market for its first electric motorcycle, Flying Flea C6, but is looking at leveraging the country’s manufacturing strength to export electric vehicles, said Siddhartha Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors, which makes motorcycles under the Royal Enfield brand.
The Flying Flea C6 will be priced at a premium to electric scooters available in the Indian market, he said.
“So we’re not talking India only at all in this case, like probably the first bike where India may not be P1+ / Priority One Plus market,” Lal told ET. “Obviously, it’s (India) always important for us. But there are other markets that will probably have better traction first, and then over time, India will also have good traction. But it allows us to enter a full new space, which otherwise we wouldn’t have, in petrol bikes.”
While Royal Enfield is not keen on foraying into the entry-level commuter motorcycle segment, it will position the FF C6 “a couple of notches up”, and away from the mid-weight category where it dominates sales of petrol motorcycles in the country.
Broadly, the company will initially focus on marketing the FF-C6 in countries in Europe, the US, and some cities like Bangkok (Thailand) and São Paulo (Brazil), according to Lal.
Royal Enfield is in the process of setting up a facility for EVs at its second manufacturing unit in Vallam Vadagal (Tamil Nadu). It will have an initial installed capacity of 150,000 units per annum.
Lal said the price of the electric motorcycle will not be “in line with the price of available electric scooters”. “It’s a premium product, and hopefully for people upgrading, or as an alternative to upgrade, but in every way, in style, in performance, in range, in price, in every way,” he said.
The company, though, has started working on alternative models of ownership to ease access to customers. “So we (are) thinking of all the different (aspects), even how to sell, where to sell, how to sell, will it be through our existing channel only? Is it through different channels? Is it a combination? Is it direct to only channel, direct to customers? We’re looking at also, again, different (models) in different markets,” Lal said.
The MD said the company has 28 patents for the electric motorcycle, batteries and motors, which have been designed internally. The battery cells, though, will be sourced by Royal Enfield.
Overall, Royal Enfield and VE Commercial Vehicles—both divisions of Eicher Motors–are looking at investing INR 2,000 crore in EVs, in line with the parameters set out for availing of incentives under the government’s INR 24,938-crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.
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