Chennai based two-wheeler manufacturer; Royal Enfield has decided to replicate the success of Hunter 350 in India to the global market with the recent introduction of the Meteor 650 unveiled at EICMA 2022.
But the Chennai-headquartered two-wheeler maker has been time and again questioned about its plans for entering the electric two-wheeler segment.
The company’s MD, Siddhartha Lal, had earlier said that Royal Enfield is working on an electric motorcycle but it was at least 3-5 years away as the technology has not matured up.
In the company’s earnings call after the announcement of the Q2 numbers, B Govindarajan, CEO, Royal Enfield said that the company is actively expanding its R&D and product team both in UK and India to work on electric products.
He believes that like every other segment, the motorcycle to it is the future, but for the technology to mature it will take at least 3-4 years.
“We have started building a team internally. Just like what we did for the IC-engine development our tech centres in the UK and India will work together. Even in the EV space we are looking at integrating our talent pool. We are building a dedicated team and deploying resources. At EICMA 2022 we are looking at the various technology and talents in the EV space,” said Govindarajan.
While Royal Enfield for long has been working on its own, it is safe to say that the global trend of partnerships, JVs, and acquisitions is something that even it cannot ignore completely.
Talking about investing in R&D and technology, he said that the company was amongst the leading OEMs to establish a dedicated tech center outside of the UK, which has grown from a small team of 5 people to 145.
Furthermore, the company is exploring all options, and if needed maybe would even look at tapping talent in the electrification space from other markets.
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