Royal Enfield, the bike-making arm of Eicher Motors Limited (EML), said that it is not looking for any inorganic growth for boosting its electric motorcycle portfolio. A senior official of the company said that it would instead be investing its time and resources on its maiden battery-run motorcycles, which will be rolled out by the next financial year.
“We're not a big acquisitive company and don't see any particular revenue opportunities in these startups. Although we keep our eyes and ears open, there's nothing interesting that we're looking at," Siddhartha Lal, managing director and chief executive officer, EML, told reporters in a post-earnings conference call.
When asked to cite reasons behind this thinking, he said, “I don't think any of the EV (electric vehicle) startups out there are doing the job properly, because e-motorcycles are not selling properly. So there's nothing out there that interests us at all at this point. We don't acquire companies like that because I think we have an amazing programme in-house.”
In August 2023, Lal had indicated that Royal Enfield plans to roll out its maiden electric bike in India in 2025. The country’s largest premium bike manufacturer had unveiled the prototype version of the battery-run electric motorcycle at EICMA, Italy in November 2023. The company is building a commercial team to drive its electric two-wheeler business under a separate vertical.
“Over the last couple of years, since we've been working on our own (EV) programme, we've got a lot of confidence in our own technical capabilities where we think the market can go,” Lal said. However, he added that the company doesn’t intend to launch the product during the current fiscal.
Royal Enfield is expected to initially roll out its EVs from its existing facility, before expanding into a new factory in Cheyyar, Tamil Nadu.
Lal said since the market is “not gagging” for electric motorcycles, he is not in a “tearing rush” to launch them.
“Our general approach to this is that we want to do it deliberate and amazing. If it takes us a little bit more time to just get the nuances, everything absolutely spot on, that's our approach rather than ensuring that we get to market quickly," affirmed Lal.
In his view, electric bikes are not even close to the traction that electric cars have gained globally.
“Electric motorcycles will take much longer (to develop) than electric scooters because you need more range. Therefore, it requires a bigger battery, which means it's heavy, there's no packaging space, it's expensive and it doesn't compare properly to petrol motorcycles. So I believe we have something very interesting coming up, which should tackle some parts of this,” Lal added.
However, Lal hinted that the company is collaborating with Spanish high-performance electric motorcycle maker Stark Future, in which it had earlier bought a 10 percent stake.
"The only one that we absolutely thought was absolutely stellar and we fell in love with not just their bikes, but also their concept of the business model, was Stark Future. So we did make an investment. We have recently visited them as well in Barcelona and ridden the bikes,” Lal said.
Meanwhile, Lal affirmed that increasing competition from Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor Company, etc., has put the spotlight back on the domestic premium motorcycle market.
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