As the transition to electric mobility accelerates, Royal Enfield, India’s Eicher Motors’ iconic and longest-production British motorcycle brand, is making rapid progress with its own electric vehicle portfolio. The company intends to enter the market in the next 18-24 months. To carry out the plan, Royal Enfield recently hired Umesh Krishnappa, the former CTO of Ola Electric, to lead its EV entry. According to several sources, a dedicated team for the electric vehicle business has been formed in India and the United Kingdom to develop a strategy for participating in the emerging zero-emission mobility space.
Royal Enfield will invest more than USD 100-150 million in its EV venture.
Work on a dedicated platform, internally dubbed ‘L,’ has already begun, and the company intends to offer a variety of products to meet the diverse needs of global buyers. Within a few years of its market entry in the second half of 2024, the company is exploring a business potential of 1.2 to 1.8 lakh units per year from EVs. The platform was designed with a global audience in mind, so in addition to catering to the emerging EV space in the domestic market, the company hopes to take it to some key global markets as well.
This architecture’s prototype is expected to be completed within the next 12 months. According to a person in the know who requested anonymity, the company wants to validate its product by the end of 2023 in order to be ready for a market launch in 2024. The company’s spokesperson told our sister publication Autocar Professional in an official response that the company has made huge strides in its “EV journey” over the last few years. The R&D programmes have placed a strong emphasis on sustainable mobility technologies, and several concepts are in the “advanced stages of testing.”
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