Royal Enfield and Bajaj Auto might be vying against each other for the two-wheeler market pie, but the mutual admiration of the two bosses remains firmly in place, far from the racing turf.
Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj squarely admitted that he is deeply inspired by Siddharth Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors Limited (EML), which owns the Royal Enfield brand.
“I am motivated in no small measure by the great success of my younger brother Siddharth (Siddharth Lal of Eicher)," Bajaj told CNBC-TV18 in an interview. "If he can do so much just participating in the 350cc segment, we can surely do a lot more with 125cc-plus. I think our share in the 125-cc segment is just under 30 percent and in the 150cc-plus sport segment as we call it is just above 40 percent.”
A couple of years back, the Bajaj Auto MD had stated that he would "bet on BET”. By BET, he meant Bajaj, Enfield and TVS, and said that such legacy players were the champions as they had demonstrated their capabilities and had a proven track record.
Bajaj's affection finds its roots to a remark by Lal to a publication some four years back where he referred to him as his elder brother. “When we were tiny, and we needed guidance, he (Rajiv Bajaj) opened his doors. We always had an amazing friendship, there is no doubt about that. But at the front end, it is all competition,” a newspaper report had quoted him as saying.
Lal is credited with the turnaround of the Royal Enfield brand, which EML took over in the early 90s. Unlike mass market players, Royal Enfield makes niche bikes in the 350cc and above segments such as Bullet, Classic 350, Royal Enfield Thunderbird, Meteor 350, Classic 500, Interceptor 650, Continental and Himalayan. Out of the 71,336 units of the 350cc motorcycles sold in May 2023, Royal Enfield alone had a share of 64,923 units, cornering 91 percent of the market share.
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