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Royal Enfield wants strong presence in western Europe, US

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Harley vrooms on 'best of breed' tech strategy

Royal Enfield set to expand capacity in Tamil Nadu

NEW DELHI: It’s like David taking on Goliath, on the highway. Till now, Milwaukee-born Harley-Davidson (HD), which makes motorcycles with engine displacements over 700cc, has been chugging along unchallenged. But finally, an Indian ‘heavy’ bike maker seems to have caught up, albeit with its nifty range of smaller capacity models.Chennai-based Royal Enfield (RE), originally a British marque from Redditch, sold a shade over 3 lakh bikes in 2014 , overtaking Harley’s global sales of 2.67 lakh units. Although HD motorcycles sell at a huge premium over their RE kin (HD’s most affordable model in India sells for around Rs 5 lakh while RE’s most expensive model comes for Rs 2 lakh), what’s remarkable is the stunning turnaround by one of the world’s oldest motorcycle brands.Ten years ago, RE was just a fringe player in the domestic motorcycle market plagued by its 50-year-old unreliable iron cast engine while newer and more reliable models from its Japanese rivals swamped the biking scene.But since then, after modernizing its portfolio and rolling out a slew of contemporary models, such as, the Classic, the new Thunderbird and the Continental GT, it has had a strong run. While HD’s worldwide numbers grew by 3%, RE grew by 70%.Owned by the Rs 1,758 crore Eicher Motors and run by MD & CEO Siddhartha Lal, RE now wants to build a strong presence in Western Europe and the US while the domestic demand for its bikes remains strong.