Royal Enfield seems to be doing well in their quest to take over the motorcycle world, with news of huge sales growth again this year, and rumours of yet another important new model.
In the past few months, Royal Enfield has introduced two models that greatly diversified their range — the Continental GT cafe racer and the Himalayan adventure bike. They announced a vital financing deal with GE Capital. They had massive sales growth in 2015 (surpassing Harley-Davidson’s numbers globally) and announced a new R&D facility in the UK. Not bad at all for a company that, not that recently, was known for cranking out bikes that sold on throwback appeal, and little else.
Now, the news is once again good. According to reports from India, their sales are up once again over 2015’s record-smashing numbers. NDTV says that, for March 2016, their sales were up 52 per cent over 2015’s numbers. Of course, the Himalayan launch helped. Nevertheless, this is sales growth most of the motorcycle world can only see and envy.
But when will the growth end? Not anytime soon, if Royal Enfield can help it. The Economic Times is reporting Royal Enfield has their UK R&D facility working on a twin-cylinder engine in the 600-650 cc range. Supposedly this is for a project code-named “P61.” The bike is supposed to be launched in 2017.
The Economic Times figures the engine will be slotted into a cruiser, which would once again be a new direction for the Enfield lineup, if they make that move. The writer also claims we can expect updated versions of the Classic and Thunderbird, all built towards Royal Enfield’s well-known goal — dominance of the 500-750 cc market.
I owned a 1995 from 1999 to 2003. Fun to ride if you’re not in a hurry… but I hope the reliability has improved. I used it as a daily commuter, but I always made sure to have my tool kit with me – I needed it on more than one occasion.
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A Continental GT with an improved 650 twin would be very nice!
Hmmm, a 650 twin Classic would be interesting.
They might need to reduce their price for this or improve quality.
Definitely- for Canada anyway their pricing is totally out to lunch.