NEW DELHI: Unfazed by growing competition in the mid-size motorcycle market, Siddhartha Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors (the parent company of Royal Enfield), on Thursday said they are confident of commanding a market share of 80%-85% in the medium to long term.
Currently, Royal Enfield (RE) dominates the 250cc-750cc segment with a market share of nearly 90%.
“To be fair we are building a fortress which is not easy to penetrate,” said Lal as Triumph (in partnership with Bajaj Auto) and Harley-Davidson (in partnership with Hero MotoCorp) – are entering a market, which is almost entirely developed by his company.
“We are many steps ahead of the competitors. We believe that competition would grow the 250cc plus bike market, say from 1 million now to 1.5-2 million in the next five-six years. We will continue to hold 80-85% shares and we are not going to cede any share willingly,” said the Eicher Motors managing director.
The MD took a jibe at rival companies and said that he hopes that they have learned a bit now from their 15-year-plus experience and that they would come up with some new ideas. “Most of them are not able to do things themselves. So they thought, let us join forces and contract manufacture… Unlike our competitors, we are not obsessed with rivals or competition. We are obsessed with consumers,” said Lal.
Eicher on Thursday reported a 50% rise in net profit to Rs 918 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1FY24), compared with Rs 611 crore in Q1FY23. The company also saw a record rise in revenue to Rs 3,986.4 crore during the April-June quarter, up 17% year-on-year.
Royal Enfield sold 225,368 motorcycles in the quarter, an increase of 21%. Eicher said that they have lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore for Royal Enfield in FY24, a significant part of which will go towards developing EVs. RE would launch its first electric bike in 2 years.