Siddhartha Lal said that they are focused on making RE a global brand which is quite a hard task but they are thriving on it
We all know by now that an iconic motorcycle brand Jawa is making a comeback and its biggest rival will be Royal Enfield. The first motorcycle from Jawa is set to be unveiled on 15th November and we all are quite excited about it. Recently ET Auto had a conversation with Mr Siddhartha Lal, managing director of Eicher Motors and asked him whether he is worried about their latest competitor or not.
Mr Lal said he is unfazed by the upcoming Jawa rivalry and wishes all the best to the group (Mahindra) who revived the old heritage brand. When he was asked whether he regrets his decision of not acquiring Jawa brand earlier he said that Royal Enfield is a focused company and their plan always has been to make one particular brand as a global brand and it is definitely not an easy task.
He also included that there is no consumer brand out of India and RE has the potential to be it. When he was asked whether the segment where Royal Enfield ruled once is slowing down or not he replied by saying that they had a flawless run for the last 8 years and is facing some small issues now.
However, they all are short-term problems and won’t affect them in longer terms. He lastly also added to his statement that every business has ups and downs and they will keep making improvements to their strategies and products to come back up once again.
Coming back to Jawa, this iconic brand like we already said is making a comeback with the help of Mahindra group. They recently even disclosed the details of the new engine which will power their first motorcycle. The newly developed engine will be a single cylinder 293 cc liquid cooled DOHC unit which promises to deliver around 27 hp and 28 Nm of torque.
Reports suggest that the first motorcycle will actually be a retro roadster and it will rival directly against the RE Classic 350, Bullet 350 and also the Thunderbird 350. These motorcycles have been ruling the 300-500 cc segments in India for a long time because of lack of competition. It will be interesting to see whether the launch of Jawa will make any impact or not.