Interview with Sidhartha Lal, CEO, Royal Enfield
How have you been able to use the Continental GT name, with Bentley already using it?
Firstly it’s a Royal Enfield Continental GT. It is a historic name from 50 years ago. We have had no issues with it. And we haven’t thought about it as much as your readers and you have. The idea wasn’t to confuse anybody, it was more to borrow from our past.
Why did it take so long, after announcing it at the previous Auto Expo?
Well, to do a really good job takes time. We showed it at the 2010 Auto Expo and launched it in September 2013, so it’s three and a half years. But in January 2010, it was very much a concept bike, not meant for production or sorted out. It was more to gauge people’s reaction. People liked the idea. Firstly, we had to agree on going ahead with this project, Then we had to figure out the co-ordinates and such. Some time in 2011 we figured, in order to do it justice, we would have to build a full new motorcycle, from ground up. A little later we decided the engine and platform would remain the same. But the chassis had to be all-new since neither the existing one nor the other concepts worked. This is the first full new chassis we have done, so it took a little longer. We wanted to do it right, so we went to the right people, did a lot of testing to get it right. That was the main reason for the three-year span.
What was it that put the concept of café racer in your mind? And when?
I honestly don’t know exactly where or when it happened or who thought of it. However, it wasn’t an ‘a ha’ moment either. It was an idea which bubbled slowly, simmered over time and until we got used to the idea of building café racer. Our distributor used to do a cafe racer then our parts guy used to do a clubman. We also found that there was real interest in a café racer and so a revival had some real potential.
Besides the epic Himalayan Odyssey, there are so many other rides that you do. So was this part of the plan or did it just happen?
No, this is very much part of a plan, some of which you see above the surface which are the bigger rides. Our objective behind the twelve big rides is to catalyse people, give them the opportunity and encourage them to join in and experience what riding in a group amounts to. That it is just a cool and really fun thing to do. For some people it is a once in a lifetime experience. For some it’s their life style. But either which way it’s an experience which is interesting and different from normal mundane city life. So we want to encourage that. Since everyone doesn’t want to go the Himalayas, we have other rides. Some are successful, some not, some we do one time, some we scale-up as annual rides. So that is very much part of a plan to get more people on their bikes and we have done thousands of local rides which are not above the radar. It’s basically creating a riding culture.
The 2013 Odyssey was a big event, and then came the Rider Mania coupled with GT launch…
Well, the Himalayan Odyssey was the tenth edition. So we scaled it up and have what we call a reunion in Leh, and the same with Rider Mania. It’s basically just improving on our existing format. And of course the GT was substantially different because we had never launched a bike close to this scale. Frankly we got very bored with getting people to a hotel and showing our bikes and telling you their prices. So the UK launch was to show the GT in its natural habitat and environment. The Ace Café is the birthplace of café racing. It was a very comprehensive immersion into the Royal Enfield and cafe racer cultures, not just a ride on a bike. It was kind of the same in Goa, the roads there are really well suited for our kind motorcycling. Our push over the last year has been in the retail format, to expand the number and the quality of dealerships. By year end, we should have 300 plus dealers.
Are you looking at offering performance and racing in the future?
That’s certainly a large realm of thinking. You need another dimension of approach to create performance bikes. Racing is on the horizon. We would love to do a single make series.
Will the Harley-Davidson 500 and 750 be a threat to Royal Enfield?
We have been very consistent for decades, to create a larger market in India, not for big bikes but a 250cc plus market. We believe that we have created a growing market. The Royal Enfield brand is unique and we want to keep it there. I believe that we have really found that sweet spot in India. So it’s really for the others to prove their worth.
