Harley-Davidson, Triumph in the first gear to challenge Royal Enfield. Know more

Harley-Davidson and Triumph are two iconic motorcycle manufacturers from two sides of the Atlantic and both of them are in the first gear of challenging one common rival in India, which is Royal Enfield. The Indian motorcycle manufacturer that has been dominating the 350-650 cc category motorcycle market for more than half-century in the country is facing a tough challenge as the US motorcycle brand Harley-Davidson and British company Triumph, along with their Indian partners Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto, respectively, have already launched their respective aggressively priced models in the country.

Both Harley-Davidson and Triumph have surprised the motorcycle market this month by introducing their cheapest models globally. Harley-Davidson launched the X440 motorcycle at a starting price of ₹2.29 lakh (ex-showroom), while Triumph introduced its Speed 400 at an introductory price of ₹2.23 lakh (ex-showroom), which now increased to ₹2.33 lakh (ex-showroom).

Watch: Harley-Davidson X440 Review: Can it pose royal challenge to Enfield?

Harley-Davidson, with its X440, tried to penetrate a segment, where the demand is rising for premium models with high performance without making a bigger hole in the pocket. For this, the iconic US motorcycle manufacturer joined forces with Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturer and India's number-one two-wheeler brand. Under their partnership, the X440 has been conceptualised, designed, developed and built in India in an attempt to avoid the tax trap, which could have made it impossible to price the motorcycle that cheap. With this strategy, the X440 has become the cheapest Harley model in its history. This model challenges the Royal Enfield Classic 350, Meteor 350, and Honda H'ness CB350 among others.

Watch: Triumph Speed 400 Review: Worth the hype?

Triumph Speed 400, on the other hand, has been introduced in collaboration with Bajaj Auto in India. This motorcycle comes as the cheapest offering from the British brand in India. The cheapest pricing has been achieved by local manufacturing and avoiding the import tariff. In both Harley-Davidson and Triumph's cases, one thing is common. Both the motorcycle giants have struggled long to make a dent in the Indian motorcycle industry, as import duties made their motorcycles expensive for buyers and both companies have joined hands with domestic partners to locally manufacture the motorcycles to avoid tax traps.

In a report, Reuters claims that the similar, near-simultaneous change in approach by two of the industry's most storied brands represents one of the biggest challenges to Royal Enfield's virtual monopoly in high-end motorcycles, which comes at a time when India is witnessing rising spendings in premium segments across categories as varied as mobile phones and cars. Making things even tougher for Royal Enfield is Harley-Davidson and Triumph's strategy to introduce a large number of showrooms, which will be pitted against Royal Enfield's vast dealership network, strong after-sales network and entrenched fan base. While the Royal Enfield may not immediately feel the challenge from the two overseas competitors, but the pressure is surely going to mount on it over time.

The back-to-back launches by Harley-Davidson and Triumph even pushed Royal Enfield's parent company Eicher Motors' stock price down as much as 12.5 per cent. Even though Harley-Davidson and Triumph's sales are currently pale in comparison to those of Royal Enfield, but these two aspirational brands have achieved a price point for the buyers that was not possible earlier and this could be just the beginning for them. The report also indicates that the pricing and brand cachet of the Harley-Davidson X440 and Triumph Speed 400 could cut Royal Enfield's share in India's 350 cc plus motorcycle segment to 75 per cent from more than 90 per cent.