The muscle bikes’ maker Royal Enfield is looking into introducing a new version of Royal Enfield Continental-GT by end of current 2013. This new bike will carry a 525 cc power plant. The news was confirmed by a senior company official recently. Siddhartha Lal, the Managing Director and CEO of Eicher Motors Ltd., said that they are planning to bring-in the Continental-GT by end of year 2013. The bike will be produced at the Orgadam situated facility of their company he added further.
Some of the major bikes that Royal Enfield is selling at its sales outlets are Bullet, Thunderbirds, and Classic models that adorn 500 cc and 350 cc engines. In total, the company, that is a part of Eicher Motors Limited, has 250 dealerships and 11 stores across the country. Apart from this, the company has also been exporting the motorbikes to various nations that include UK, US, and Japan.
The premium bike maker also recently rolled out its first two wheeler from its Oragadam facility that is the second plant of Royal Enfield in India. This manufacturing facility is spread across 50 acres of land and the first phase of it has been completed after investment of Rs.150 crores. Another plant of the company is located in Thiruvottiyur that is small place near Chennai. That plant is spread across an area of 5 acres.
This second plant in Oragadum has been completed by the company in a record time period of 11 months. The plat from last few months was running under its trial production phase. The initial production capacity of the plant will be somewhat around 1.50 lakhs annually, which the company intends to pull till 1.75 lakhs by end of this year.
When the plant will enter its second phase in 2014 it production capacity will increase up to 2.50 lakhs which will help the company in achieving its global targets. The models that will be initially produced in the plant are Thunder 500 and 350 cc models along with Desert Storme.
This plant would also benefit the company in bringing down the waiting period of its premium bikes from 8 months to 6 months. The company did experienced a difficult time in 1990s but they persisted on their commitments and after a decade became the biggest two wheeler maker of the nation and the world as well. They registered fifty percent growth on an annual basis.
Apart from the Indian market the company does exports to 40 other countries. US has been the biggest importer of Royal Enfield and takes in about 600 bikes every month. The new plant will be used to produce some more engines along with the new bikes that are being produced at these plants.
