Soon, you may be able to see your Royal Enfield getting built

If all goes well, you may be able to see your Royal Enfield motorcycle getting built at their factory. Eicher Motors-controlled niche bike brand Royal Enfield is considering the proposition to allow some of its bike buyers  witness the actual manufacturing process of their bikes.

Automotive companies have in the past taken stakeholders, analysts and journalists to witness the manufacturing process at their plants. But if the proposal gets accepted at Royal Enfield, it will be the first of its kind customer experiment done by a vehicle manufacturer in India.

Sources told Moneycontrol that the maker of Classic 500 and Himalayan has appointed a small internal team to oversee these plans. While it may not be possible to entertain requests of every Royal Enfield buyer, considering more than 60,000 of their bikes get sold every month, the company will have to look at ways to keep the number of visitors to minimum.

While the concept of taking buyers to witness the manufacturing process of their bikes is new in India,  premium western motorcycle brands have carried out this exercise at their plants.

“While the aim behind this is to help create and retain the brand loyalty amongst buyers as many buyers would have never seen how a bike gets made it also helps in creating a sense of transparency in the manufacturing process. Creation of adventure rides, bike festivals and rider groups are a part of that Royal Enfield consumer culture," said the source.

A mail sent to Eicher Motors remained unanswered at the time of publishing this article.

Royal Enfield has plants spread over two locations - Vallam Vadagal and Oragadam – both near Chennai. The two locations jointly produced 820,000 units last year. It will start the second phase of expansion from Valam Vadagal, which is newer of the two plants, later this year.

Royal Enfield has grown its production capacity by nearly seven times in the last five years. Despite this, it has struggled to meet demand leading to a waiting period stretching to more than six months especially for its best seller Classic 350. However, of late it has managed to raise capacity significantly, thereby bringing down the waiting period.

As per data given by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Royal Enfield sales grew by 23 percent to 8.01 lakh last year in the domestic market even as the two wheeler industry grew by just under 15 percent.

Royal Enfield has rapidly added several new models to its line up over the past couple of years. Continental GT, Himalayan, Thunderbird X and multiple variants of the Classic series were the launches the brand made over the years. It has lined up two new 650cc launches in the coming weeks – Continental GT and Interceptor.