“Yes, we will,” was Royal Enfield CEO Siddhartha Lal’s response when AMCN’s Alan Cathcart asked if the company will produce a larger capacity version of the successful Himalayan adventure bike. “We have selected which models we will be making bigger and more powerful versions of than we have today, and the Himalayan is one of those.”
Siddhartha explained that the move was a strategic one designed to help Indian-owned Royal Enfield achieve its goal of becoming number one in global sales in the middleweight segment by 2022.
“That’s the playing field we’ve set ourselves for many different reasons,” he said.
Siddharta also confirmed that the brand will not build any bikes larger than 750cc or smaller than 250cc.
“I don’t expect to go below our current 350cc capacity, though,” he said. “Today there’s a large section of people who really like to ride our Royal Enfields on highways where the traffic is going at 110-120km/h. But you’re struggling at that speed on our motorcycle and for some people it’s not the most pleasant experience because you’re going at full throttle all the time, and you can’t do that for too long without getting frazzled.”
Siddhartha didn’t say when to expect the larger-capacity adventure bike, nor the incoming parallel-twin spied in India recently (AMCN Vol 66 No 23), but given the surprising success of the 410cc version in both domestic and export markets, expect it sooner rather than later.
By Kel Buckley
