[TusharK]

Royal Enfield has set up an assembly unit in Argentina. It's the brand's first factory outside India.



Royal Enfield has partnered with Grupo Simpa, the brand's local distributor to set up this unit. It is located at Campana in Buenos Aires.

Initially, three models will be assembled at this factory using completely knocked down kits (CKD). These include the Himalayan, Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650.

Royal Enfield has been selling its range of products in Argentina since March 2018. It has five exclusive stores in the country. Royal Enfield also has a total of 31 exclusive stores and 40 retail touchpoints in Latin American countries. The brand has its presence in 60 countries across the globe.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[rrsteer]

Royal Enfield in my opinion has what it takes to be the first superhit global consumer brand coming from India. True it has British heritage, but for past many decades its home is India. Truly, wish them the best!

[anjan_c2007]

That's the way to go. Even in their prime years under the older management, Royal Enfield catered only to select clientele and customers and never had the numbers, even with their lighter bikes and their sole scooter the Fantabulus (1962-72). The new management under the Eicher Group headed by Mr Siddharth Lal revived the fading brand with the infusion of new capital and technology to make it's presence felt in the numbers game. And this time, for the numbers, the lowest engine capacity was 350 cc. Gaining the market foothold with such bikes in India is no easy game. Other present day Indian brands sell bikes and scooters ranging in engine size from sub 100 cc to 300 or to 400 cc and gain the mass market traction with their 100-150 cc bikes/ scooters and not from their offerings of 300 cc and above.

Royal Enfield has done India proud and features in the Top ten British motor bike brands as these links will reveal:-

https://therake.com/stories/speed/th...ds-in-history/

( Royal Enfield in it's older British avatar and now Indian avatar are acknowledged here at # 3)

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocia...orcycle-brands

(this survey features the Top 10 British motorbike revived brands and features Royal Enfield India)

We found the iconic car models the Ambassador (based on the Morris Oxford Series III) and the Premier Padmini (based on the Fiat 1100 D) sink under the globalisation regime in the face of cut throat competition, but Royal Enfield also an old timer with outdated technology imparted synergy into itself with the requisite resilience and emerge so successfully as a top notch player. Capital infusion and new technology with an able management team played the leading part.

The Argentinian assembly plant will aid them serve the Latin American market seamlessly, where they have a strong presence.

[Venkatesh]

Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 roll out new Argentina plant

https://youtu.be/xgoFvYVt8e8

[sandeepmohan]

Happy to see this company grow and expand to other parts of the world. The progress Enfield India has made is simply amazing, with funding and guidance from Eicher and Siddharth Lal. As someone who has visited the factory back in 2008-2009, it did not look like they would survive back then. This was the time the unit construction engines had rolled out and Enfield were exporting the Classic model. A departure from the old cast iron block engines which were still being manufactured. Quality was iffy and I guess it still is. That said, the portfolio has never been this good. You still have the Standard no frills 350 and if you want the best, you have the parallel twin which is a rebirth of the original Interceptor. Royal Enfield have given their close knit community everything we've asked of them. I know of no other motorcycle brand in India that does it like this.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by anjan_c2007

The new management under the Eicher Group headed by Mr Siddharth Lal revived the fading brand with the infusion of new capital and technology to make it's presence felt in the numbers game.

SIddharth Lal has been credited with excellent branding and marketing of Enfield products - but I guess the most relevant focus now is their improvements in quality. The 650 Twins are truly world class products and yet to hear any major complaints from users - some bikes in my friends circle are running as reliably as any modern motorcycle would!

Thats a huge step up in quality for Royal Enfield. Moreover - the motorcycles also have the go to match the show! The difference in treatment is very obvious in the international reviews from the last two years.

Back in June, it was reported that the Interceptor 650 was the best selling motorcycles in a (COVID strained) UK market - but such international news about an Indian brand surely brings a cheer!

[RoadAtlas]

The South American countries have a long heritage of Biking. Every year, thousands of bikers from Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Peru attempt completing the Alaska- Patagonia trail along the Caraterra Austral through the beautiful Fjords, Whale filled lakes and multiple forests of the size of small asian countries.

However if the RE really want to keep selling the bikes in international markets, they have to do more than just this.

My first tryst with Royal Enfield was when a very close friend bought a first generation Himalayan in April, 2015. He was delighted, completed a trip to Upper Mustang in October and the bike served fantastically.

And then the nightmares started. The bike stopped abruptly at night leaving him stranded in the mid of Gorumara forest at midnight. Issues continued and he had to sell it after only one and half years of ownership. At the third generation BS6 models issues are mostly ironed out, but the tarnished image is still etched in many minds. Few other points:

1. Himalayan's 411cc engine produces 24.83ps. 200cc engine Pulsar 200 NS produces the same power (24.5ps). Himalayan is way, way pricier and 200cc from Bajaj is the older engine.

2. 648cc engine of the GT twins produces 47.65ps. Dominar's 400cc produces 40ps. Same statements as Point 1. Thankfully this is a Fuel Injected engine unlike the Himalayan.

3. Internationally sold bikes have better additional components fitted than locally sold bikes. here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KWOyPMJ_-4

They add components specifically to reduce vibration and add strength and stability for the bikes sold in first world countries. I doubt Re is adding them to bikes sold in South American and African countries. Thankfully GT twins sold in India is now the same as the ones sold internationally.

4. When Himalayan was launched in US, they were instantly getting compared to KLR650. The KLR despite being more than 10 years older than Himalayan, produced way more power and was more capable too.

Bajaj is a mammoth in the African markets, but even after more than 10 years of selling bikes internationally, they have little presence in American and European markets.

My points are: in order to be successful as an international brand, RE has a long way to go. Few steps in the right direction can be:

1. Launching Himalayan 650cc. Long awaited.
2. Launching the 838cc bobber that they showcased. Another Adventure bike with the same engine will be a worthy addition.
3. Launching a proper Adventure bike with 1000cc/1200cc engine. For Example, The GS, despite being a CBU with high taxes, sell very very well in indian market and bring a fat profit to BMW. It is similar for Africa Twins and Tiger.
4. Putting more importance on quality, usability and reliability other than plain Aesthetics.
5. And finally ASS. RE services are costly and a lot can be improved.

[ishan12]

It always amazes me how the brand/ company has turned around. Literally resurrected from the grave.

I have a lot of my childhood memories of being with my dad on his company owned Bullet Standard 350 CI and my uncles Rx100. Was fortunate enough to own them both later in life.(RX135 and Thunderbird). The Standard 350 as I remember used to get its point set routinely (CI owners will relate )

Back around in 2002-03, when the Thundebird AVL was newly launched, I was in class 8th, I was in a library reading some magazine and it had an ad of a Blue Thunderbird parked at a campsite, it was love at first sight for me. (Btw, I am still looking for that picture/ ad, could never find it again, In case some one can find it for me, would be highly obliged).

I was still in school around 2005-06 and was having this conversation with my dad, that I would love to get myself a Royal Enfield when I start earning.
He explained to me that in all likelihood RE will not be around by that time and there would be many other brands to choose from. He explained how it is a pain to maintain an RE these days and the really low mileage and the extra oil etc that goes into the motorcycle (CI engine), starting issues etc. Except a select few enthusiasts, there is hardly anyone buying REs and it would most probably shut down in a few years.

It was really sad for me to hear this, because REs were always close to my heart even though I had never really ridden one.
Now look how the company transformed post 2008 .
I finally bought the Thunderbird in 2012 when I got my first job, sold it in 2019 and got the Interceptor.

Now that the company has a reasonable presence outside of India, its great to see it setting up plants abroad. Harley in process of winding up from multiple markets and struggling financially while RE expanding outside India. Back in the 2000s Who would have thought this could ever happen.

[neil.jericho]

On the topic of improving quality to be able to succeed in global markets, Royal Enfield did take some pretty big strides towards improving this a couple of years ago for the USA market. Im posting some excerpts from the Revzilla article dated the 28th of March 2018.

With the parent company working on improving the quality of the manufacturing in India, it was up to Loffredo to make sure that those improvements translated to the American market. The first big project that he set out to tackle was the creation of a PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection) center.

“The catalyst behind the PDI Center was warranty-driven, however it had less to do with warranty issues from a manufacturing or production perspective, but from a shipping perspective,” Loffredo explained. “These bikes are built in Oragadam and it's an open truck ride to the ports. And then it's a container ride across the ocean to the Port of Houston before another truck ride to the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We can't ship with oil or gas in the motorcycles. So, if you run a bike over in India, and it takes roughly two to three months for that vehicle to reach us, there's a good chance for varnish from the gasoline to build up on the filter or the fuel injector, not to mention loose bolts or other parts. So, we wanted to address all those concerns.”

Every motorcycle entering the United States is now inspected and assembled by the same team in a large service facility outside of Dallas. Before Royal Enfield North America implemented this PDI center in 2016, motorcycles were shipped directly from the port to individual dealerships. Because there were no set guidelines that dealerships had to adhere to for bike preparation, the quality of the product a customer received varied dramatically depending on the dealer.

According to Loffredo, Royal Enfield North America has seen a 90 percent decrease in initial customer complaints and warranty claims since they’ve taken ownership of this process.

“Another tie-in to the PDI center is that when we find things, we log it onto a report, and that goes right back to the production line in India,” Loffredo explained. “So, it's hand in hand, we're locked together, which is awesome. If there are things they missed on the line, which is very few, we'll grab it, we'll flag it, and we'll send it back to be corrected. They're able to correct stuff and really help the rest of the world through things that we're catching. It's kinda cool.”

I really like this local market PDI model that is being employed by RE, it has certainly helped them a lot and owners are happy with the tightened up quality of the bikes that are rolling out of the showrooms. Also the investments in people and processes by RENA (Royal Enfield North America) is reflected in the feedback on different forums, which is overall quite positive.

The link to the Revzilla article is here.