Royal Enfield has a new CEO. Siddhartha Lal is stepping back from the company, and Vinod K. Dasari is the new man in charge.
Lal is perhaps the man most responsible for turning Royal Enfield around, with combined emphasis on production capacity, modernized components and classic design lines. Under Lal, Royal Enfield has gone from making a few thousand bikes per year in the early 2000s, to a production capacity near a million machines annually (as of 2018). Royal Enfield is selling well over 600,000 bikes a year now, and is keen to become the world’s biggest mid-sized motorcycle manufacturer. It’s already eclipsing long-established major players, building more bikes than Harley-Davidson.
Lal will remain with Eicher Motors, the parent company of Royal Enfield, but Dasari will take over the CEO role in the motorcycle business. While he’s not well-known in the motorcycle world, Dasari has decades of experience in big business, including lots of time in the automotive and transportation sector. He’s won many accolades for his service in those areas, and it will be most interesting to see where he takes the company in coming months.
I do hope their success continues! I do really dig the Himalayan, it checks a lot of boxes for me! I am hopeful that a 650 twin can make its way into the Himalayan though..