[da3mn]

Looks like introduction of the Harley-Davidson X440 seems to have spooked the investors of Eicher Motors. Eicher Motors' stock price has fallen more than 9% in last 5 days.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by da3mn

Looks like introduction of the Harley-Davidson X440 seems to have spooked the investors of Eicher Motors.

Thanks for sharing, da3mn! Copying your post out to a new thread.

Not just the X440, but even the impressively-priced Triumph Speed 400. Royal Enfield has had volumes in the big bike space all to itself, but these new motorcycles from iconic brands & attainable prices will put more pressure than ever before on Royal Enfield.

Even in terms of brand image, customers would be looking at more options. Royal Enfield could have suffered some brand fatigue among buyers from this price band. I hear Triumph Speed bookings have already crossed 10,000 units!

Great to see this intense competition . End of the day, it is hard-fought competition that makes things better for us, car & bike owners.

[aargee]

How many motorcycles did it take to hit the market of Eicher Motor's Royal Enfield?
1. Honda 300 & Honda CB350 variants
2. Hero & Harley X440
3. Bajaj & KTM variants (390 engines considered)
4. TVS & BMW G310 variants
5. Mahindra Jawa & Yezdi variants {honorable mention of Mahindra Mojo}
6. Benelli variants

Should we add Kawasaki 300 & 400 here?

And finally it had to come from British (Triumph) to dent the Royal (British) Enfield!!

[am1m]

Think it's too early to call it. While I'm not a fan of RE, (far from it- having owned one and don't think much of RE's QC and service quality), we'll have to wait and see how Bajaj and Hero handle the sales and service. RE for all their faults have a good service network now and they are the masters at marketing. The new entrants to this segment have some catching up to do.

I certainly hope they do, more competition is always better for us, the end buyers.

[anilupadhya]

Time to buy those stocks I guess. RE is not going to sit twiddling their thumbs

https://www.autocarindia.com/bike-ne...avidson-428685

"We had a very great year, but I must tell you, we also have an even better one planned, which we will see in time to come. And we have a very strong line-up of motorcycles for the year 2023-2024 and a robust plan of growth on the rebalance, which we have articulated," B Govindrajan, CEO of Royal Enfield, told investors post FY23 earnings call.

[PatienceWins]

I think it is too early to rule out Royal Enfield, though I am not a fan of RE bikes. They have a very diverse product portfolio in the segment and the product quality/ service has evolved very well over the years. The future seems good with the line up of motorcycles planned for release. My feeling is Himalayan 450 will be a promising product at an attractive price to counter Triumph Scrambler 400.

The new promising product launches from Bajaj and Hero has a long way to prove in terms of customer service, dealer/ service network, service quality etc. The brand pull will definitely take a hit of RE as the appeal of owning a Trimump/ Harley at attractive prices will definitely pull youth away from RE.

Customers are the winners anyway. Good times ahead.

[ToThePoint]

Originally Posted by aargee

And finally it had to come from British (Triumph) to dent the Royal (British) Enfield!!

RE hit the sales of Triumph Street & Bonneville on their turf with their Interceptor/GT and would have continued with more offerings from the platform. So Triumph had to hit back!

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by GTO

I hear Triumph Speed bookings have already crossed 10,000 units!

For Triumph and as a standalone number, 10,000 bookings is impressive. But not when compared to RE sales.

RE has been selling 25,000 units of Classic 350 per month at ex-showroom price of Rs. 2 Lakhs. And 25,000 units per month is probably production capacity allocated to the Indian market, because sales is suspiciously consistent at this level for months together.

I would wager that the launch of 440 and Speed is good for Royal Enfield in the long term. They dominate the 350cc+ segment and these new launches will only further expand the segment.

After all, 350cc+ segment is just 5% of overall market, and we will slowly see premium-ization of 2 wheeler market over time. Similar to what we have seen in cars.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by ToThePoint

RE hit the sales of Triumph Street & Bonneville on their turf with their Interceptor/GT and would have continued with more offerings from the platform. So Triumph had to hit back!

Kawasaki 650s? Suzuki VStorm 650? Honda CBR 650s? Honda CB500? And finally in the list does appear Trident 660.

I think the below is the most apt in the scenario because of rising disposable incomes & the growth expectation of our nation

Originally Posted by SmartCat

we will slowly see premium-ization of 2 wheeler market over time. Similar to what we have seen in cars.

[Axe77]

Its true that competition is heating up in this segment. Triumph’s media event made it evident that they had their eyes (in India at least) closely on the RE. But lets not forget that everyone wants a “slice” of the pie. A pie that’s well and truly owned by RE.

RE launches models and variants like Maruti of yore and has an absolute onslaught of models planned in various styles and engine configurations - from their very capable J type to the 650 twins and the new 450 that slots in between. It would be foolish to write them off in any respect.

In fact, when I saw these launches and the effort to benchmark and better the RE, my first thought was what a testament it is to what RE has achieved and how far they’ve come.

The one thing I agree - customers in this segment have never had it better and this recent war to offer the best possible at the most VFM price is going to only benefit the customer in the near term. The 350 - 400 cc bike segment is like the 12 -25L car segment. We’re going to see several very premium offerings in this segment which will also offer some of the best price to performance / features offerings available overall. Just like the 12 - 25L car segment has done over the last 5 - 7 years.

[Senotrius]

To add , the under development 750cc platform by RE as well.

[anjan_c2007]

Remembering a very old newspaper article sometime from 1993, post the Harshad Mehta alias Big Bull scam, the writer started with "monkeys especially gray faced langurs are very sensitive, sentimental and have deep feelings within. The stock markets are similarly very sensitive, sentimental and have deep feelings within." I fully subscribe to this writer's logic as its expressed in his simple, few lines.

Hence, its true that competition is heating up in this bike segment with newer entries and the sensitivity, sentiments and deep feelings of the Bulls and Bears are instantly surfacing.

All said and done, RE has the once Bajaj Super/ Chetak like presence in the niches it has created. So only something very superior and competitively priced with a wide service network, anywhere in India spares and service availability, repairability, durability and brand equity could get RE on its toes. RE is too smart to sense the market and offer the most desired variants with its proven track record, eversince the Madras cast iron Bullet become the Eicher aluminium Bullet. Many competitors have come and have been relegated to bite the dust or have remained marginal players.

[puntra800]

Unless RE is caught napping I doubt these new launches will make a serious dent into their sales, we all have seen the Honda H'ness and the dent it has made to RE sales(Which I feel is negligent) even though being a very competitive product. RE has one thing going for it and it is nostalgia, people from all generations have seen RE in different forms and the same cannot be said for HDs and Triumphs.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by puntra800

RE has one thing going for it and it is nostalgia, people from all generations have seen RE in different forms and the same cannot be said for HDs and Triumphs.

I'm not a biker but I don't think it is any of that (nostalgia, classic design etc). I'm talking from purely business point of view. RE models sell in large number because of:

- Number of dealers
- Value for money/lower price that competitors

And both are interlinked.

RE has 2000+ dealers, including presence in smaller cities and towns. Competitors like Jawa/Honda are nowhere close. In automobile business, more dealers generally equals more sales. Now because RE has 2000+ dealers and volumes to boot, they have the advantage of economies of scale, which simply cannot be matched by other manufacturers. Note that RE models are still 20% to 50% lower than similar engine capacity competitors (on road price, depending on the model). This matters a lot.

So while competitors cannot match the price, they try to offer more in terms engine performance (Eg: Dominar). But power/torque can only take you so far. Car analogy -> you cannot beat MARUTI by offering 200 BHP engines.

If you want to compete with Maruti, you have to match its price and also have a large number of dealers. Number of dealers is a chicken and egg problem that 2 wheeler makers have to solve. If you don't have enough dealers, you cannot have good sales. And if you don't have enough sales, you cannot have more number of dealers. Kia/Hyundai sorted these out by matching Maruti's price and also investing thousands of crores into setting up a large dealer network. Two wheeler makers need to have that risk taking ability if they want to take on RE.

[Sebring]

The mighty Honda couldn't compete with Royal Enfield with the CB 350, product being superior (My personal thought). How can Triumph with a solo dealership in the Metros? Will it be able to scale up the way RE has? I don't think it will work out. So I see this as a temporary blip.