Royal Enfield's first EV to hit India market in 2025: Eicher Motors MD Siddhartha Lal

Siddhartha Lal has said, "We are around 2 years away before the product hits the market. … our idea is to be totally disruptive."

Royal Enfield plans to launch its first electric bike in India in 2025, and the company has earmarked over Rs 1,000 crore in capex this fiscal.

"We are around two years away before the product hits the market. We are riding our prototypes. It will take us some time. We don't want to give half-baked stuff in the market at all,” said Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director, Eicher Motors Limited (EML), while speaking to reporters after releasing the company's Q1FY24 results on August 3.

Lal dubbed the company’s quarterly results the "best ever".

A large part of the capex will be spent on developing products and sales infrastructure for EVs. The company is in the process of establishing a dedicated assembly line that will have a capacity of around 1.5 lakh units per annum for its EVs at its existing manufacturing premises in Vallam before expanding into a new greenfield facility at Cheyyar, in Tamil Nadu.

‘Our idea is to be totally disruptive’

Lal had earlier said that Internal Combustion Engine Vehicle (ICE) two-wheelers will co-exist with EVs.

“Our idea is to be totally disruptive. It's not about putting something in (and) hoping to take some other competition head on or improving on them. It's a totally different paradigm that we're working towards in terms of EVs. It takes time to put together something really fantastic,” Lal said.

A few months back, he had already indicated that the legacy bike maker has begun the development work on EVs.  Eicher Motors has set up a bespoke arm to offer a sharper focus on the EV business.

The company has already hired a dedicated team of around 100 people for its EV project, led by CTO Umesh Krishnappa.

“We have appointed someone to head the commercial side of the EV business and are building a team. While there's a lot of work going on, it is still a couple of years out,” Lal added.

On the point of view about the EVs being within the Royal Enfield and Eicher Motors fold, Lal explains: "We do explore all options, we look at what others are doing, but we are not trend followers. One also has to think about the core business. If you are putting your eggs in something else, you are diluting yourself further. EVs will be the future growth engine for Eicher Motors and Royal Enfield, and it will remain within the Eicher Motors fold. There is no action or endeavour to change that at all," he said.

Royal Enfield CEO B Govindarajan said the company is building a team which is working full time only on EV projects as the product strategy is a very “elaborate process” and involves understanding “consumers’ requirements”.

“We are testing the mules, signing up with supply partners, and setting up some capacity, etc. But that's only a vehicle and (there are) some other aggregates which we have to make for EVs in terms of battery management system, motor control unit systems, etc. All the partners have been designed. So, we are at full speed, in terms of execution,” said Govindarajan.