World’s most popular cruiser bike maker Harley-Davidson is aiming to break the monopoly of Royal Enfield in the mid-market category through its latest launch X440, piggybacking on its association with Hero MotoCorp, a top executive of the company said.
In a post earnings call, Jochen Zeitz, chairman, president & CEO, Harley-Davidson, said, “There has really been only one competitor in the market who essentially has a monopoly, and we are trying to break that through an alternative with a strong international brand name.”
The mid-market category starts at 250-800cc. The pricing of these models starts at Rs 2 lakh and goes up to Rs 10 lakh.
The American bike company rolled out the X440 model, the smallest in its line-up globally, in the early part of July at a price of Rs 2.29 lakh which puts it directly in the league of models of Royal Enfield.
Royal Enfield has a market share of 88% in the 250cc+ bike segment in India as at the end of FY23, as per data supplied by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. This is the most dominant share by any company in any segment of the Indian automotive market.
Royal Enfield sales saw a growth of 38% in FY23 to 834,895 as compared to FY22, beating its previous highest in FY19. “I look at India as a long-term opportunity. It’s a huge market overall, but the premium segment that Harley-Davidson is operating in is relatively small, as we’ve seen based on our own experience in the past,” Zeitz added.
Following the ‘overwhelming response’, Hero MotoCorp last week said that the online booking window for the X440 will close on August 3. Deliveries of the bikes to the customers will be made on a prioritised basis as per booking dates. The company, however, did not provide the actual booking numbers for the bike.
While the X440 is branded as a Harley, its distribution is in the hands of Hero MotoCorp, which operates the largest network of two-wheelers in the country. The market leader is working on establishing a network of premium sales and service touchpoints which will be 100 by the end of March 2024.
Zeitz also added that it’s a license agreement with our partner that essentially provides us license income at the time when those bikes are being shipped into the market with minimum quantities that we’ve agreed per contract. “So those bikes will not hit our P&L. And (Hero MotoCorp) are also our wholesaler and distributor for our big bikes, that is, 600 cc-plus,” Zeitz added.
