Can Royal Enfield’s new Bullet counter the competition from marquee brands?

Both the Harley-Davidson X440 and the Bajaj-Triumph Speed 400 took the market by storm with their competitive pricing, high-performance engines, and premium design. Within a month of its launch, Bajaj revealed that the Triumph Speed 400 had already received over 15,000 bookings. Suddenly, Royal Enfield’s cheaper offerings like the Hunter 350 and the Meteor 350 didn’t seem as appealing, given that a far more premium brand was within reach for approximately Rs 50,000 extra. The threat isn’t imminent by any means, but one that’ll play out in the long term.

“There will be an expansion of the segment first and inter-brand cannibalisation will come later. Assuming, of course, that Triumph is successful at upending Royal Enfield’s story,” says Shubhabhrata Marmar, Co-founder, MotorInc, an online motoring community. The odds will remain in favour of market leaders for some time to come, according to Marmar. “Until we are effortlessly affluent, people will continue to favour market leaders in every segment and incumbents will struggle” he says.

Other experts have a different viewpoint. According to Sirish Chandran, Editor and Publisher of Evo India, an auto magazine, the Indian consumer’s preference is also determined by the flavour of the day. “Look at what Kia did. A relatively unknown brand came out of nowhere and rocketed to prominence, primarily on the basis of one product — the Seltos. An Indian buyer can one day buy a Maruti, the second day a Hyundai, and a VW on the third. It depends on what’s fresh and what’s making noise. Today, if someone wants to upgrade from a Royal Enfield they have premium brands available in the same segment.”

Aspiration over antiquity

Royal Enfield, however, had one last bullet in the chamber, so to speak. One that the brand hopes will even the odds. The Bullet is the most storied of Royal Enfield’s motorcycles and is synonymous with the brand. It is the longest-lived motorcycle design in history, and its authentic, old-school engine note is central to its appeal, evoking centuries-old nostalgia.

The new Bullet, however, isn’t resting exclusively on provenance. The newly launched model features the brand’s new J-Series engine which is identical only in cubic capacity to the old one. Having proven itself through newer models like the Hunter and the new Classic 350, it’s ironed out the bugs and is no longer plagued with unreliability as the Bullet of yesteryears. With the top-priced variant priced at Rs 2.15 lakh, it is also very close to the price range of the Harley-Davidson and the UK-engineered Triumph Speed 400. The Bullet is among the last truly authentic vestiges of mid-century British motorcycling in the country, and while modern, urbanised descendants like the Hunter and the Meteor do offer something more contemporary, they aren’t quite as powerful or well-finished as the Triumph Speed 400. Which is the customer likely to prefer?

According to Vir Nakai, co-founder of travel firms Helmet Stories and Tank-Up and an avid motorcyclist who has conducted numerous guided tours in Ladakh and the Himalayas, it depends. “A young, urban rider wanting to move-up from a smaller bike would find greater appeal in a Triumph Speed 400. But would its appeal be greater than the bike your dad and grandad thought was the best? I’m not sure,” says Nakai,  who owns many Royal Enfield motorcycles, along with a Triumph Bonneville T-100.

Nakai also believes that Harley-Davidson and Triumph shouldn’t be going after the same segment as the Bullet, which has been over-mined. And that while these bikes  are more aspirational, they aren’t truly representative of their brand values. “The Harley-Davidson X440 should have been closer to its roots, and Triumph has so many design elements to pick from — why go for the cruiser / roadster look?” It should be noted that BMW, which developed the G310R, went for the naked sport bike aesthetic. One that wasn’t met with much enthusiasm despite the BMW badge, for a multitude of reasons ranging from performance to servicing costs. The sport bike is a space that both Triumph and Harley are yet to prove themselves in.

Advantages and disadvantages

In terms of brand visibility, there’s no beating Royal Enfield. Especially in rural India, where it continues to have aspirational appeal. According to Marmar, one of India’s leading motorcycle journalists, “In rural India, Triumph is unknown. It has zero links to that population, which has a lot of purchasing power. There the RE brand has had a 50 year headstart on Triumph.”

However, RE’s storied past is also saddled with complaints of unreliability and poor build quality. RE’s motorcycles continue to suffer from issues such as rusting of welded parts and an overall poor finish. In terms of consistency, the brand has a truly long way to go. These issues have also been exacerbated over the years with a quality of service that, while easily available, isn’t world class. In recent times, Royal Enfield has done much to allay these concerns, but when placed next to an immaculately finished product like the Triumph Speed 400, the gaps in quality are more than apparent.

“RE’s quality control has changed dramatically and a lot of the issues we see online is more of a hangover than a reality,” says Marmar, attesting to the quality control measures taken by Royal Enfield in recent times to assuage irate consumers. “However, the Triumph Speed 400 shows that even higher quality is possible without significantly adding to costs.”

“What RE needs to do is  take control of the customer experience. While their showrooms look a certain way, their sales and service experience needs to mature to international standards,” says Marmar. “This is extremely difficult across a network as large as theirs but to me, that's where the brand battle will be fought as Indian's become more affluent and express their aspirations,” he adds.

The winner is…

India’s motorcycle market is witnessing a new inflection point. The kind that was previously defined by the arrival of a new breed of fuel-efficient yet stylish entry-level performers like the Pulsar 180 and the Hero Honda CBZ back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. For a market that was fed a consistent diet of frugal commuter motorcycles, the arrival of 150-180 cc power commuters breathed new life into the country’s motorcycling aspirations.

Marmar says that the arrival of motorcycles like the Triumph Speed 400 and its variants can help RE understand how its products can be made to look and feel more premium. “It's not just higher-end materials, but also how they're designed and deployed to make the product look and feel more premium. This is a key change that can help RE improve the quality of their products. Which will  conflate neatly with the improvement in their customer experience.”

The advantage is clearly with Royal Enfield for now, despite its warts-and-all image. “RE’s fundamentals are very strong. Their technical centre in the UK, their people, their merchandise, stores, footprint — everything is solid,” says Chandran, who believes that the launch of the Bullet alone will bring back investor confidence.

“It’s not like RE has to make any immediate course correction. They already knew what was coming. They’ve been working on it for a substantial amount of time,” he adds.

Marmar is equally gung-ho about investor confidence being restored. “I believe Royal Enfield allows their underdog image to persist because they know that not being seen as a powerful company with dominant products works for them. But they’re not underdogs actually. In sheer numbers — production, distribution, sales and service, and increasingly, apparel and accessories — they're a massive company. Massive companies are not easy to threaten,” he says.

The usurpers from Hero and Triumph aren’t the first ones to take a crack at Royal Enfield. Honda became the first credible threat to its supremacy with the Highness. However, while it was reliable, it didn’t possess the allure of a Triumph. The presence of multiple credible players will only go on to fine-tune the ecosystem, leading to the expansion of the hottest motorcycling segment in the country.

With Royal Enfield pushing the J-series 350 cc engine, you can be sure both Harley-Davidson and Triumph will serve-up fresh, alluring variants. Despite the 250-350 cc segment comprising only 5 percent of the overall two-wheeler market, higher gross margins in the category make the segment very appealing for manufacturers.

A significantly improved riding experience awaits India’s growing tribe of motorcyclists.