Royal Enfield is an Indian motorcycle manufacturer based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and the oldest motorcycle brand in continuous production. The British Royal Enfield was licensed to Madras Motors in 1955, and the Indian company has since grown from a licensed assembler into a maker of classic-looking singles and twins sold in more than fifty countries.
Royal Enfield in India at a glance
| First Royal Enfield | 1901, The Enfield Cycle Company, Redditch |
|---|---|
| Indian licence | 1955, partnership with Madras Motors |
| First Indian model | 350 cc Royal Enfield Bullet |
| Army order | 1954, 800 units of the 350 cc |
| All-Indian components | by 1962 |
| Eicher collaboration | 1990; merger in 1994 |
| Jaipur factory | motorcycle production ceased 2002 |
| Oragadam plant | opened 2013 near Chennai |
| Vallam Vadagal plant | opened 2017, capacity 600,000 a year |
| UK technology centre | Bruntingthorpe, team of 155 by the end of 2019 |
Based on one source, the English Wikipedia article on Royal Enfield.
History of the Royal Enfield in India
An army order becomes a factory
After independence in 1947 the Indian government looked for a motorcycle for border patrols, chose the Royal Enfield Bullet in 1952 and in 1954 ordered 800 of the 350 cc model. In 1955 the Redditch company partnered with Madras Motors to form Enfield India, which assembled the 350 cc Bullet in Madras — now Chennai — under licence, with the factory tooling sold to the Indian company. By 1962 every component was made in India, and Enfield India used the 1960 engine with metric bearing sizes. The same basic motorcycle is still built in 350 and 500 cc forms.
Eicher, hard years and new factories
In 1990 Royal Enfield began working with the Eicher Group, an Indian maker of commercial vehicles and automotive gears, and merged with it in 1994. The 1990s were difficult, and motorcycle production at the Jaipur factory ended in 2002. Demand recovered strongly enough for the company to open a new main factory at Oragadam, on the edge of Chennai, in 2013, followed in 2017 by a plant of similar size at Vallam Vadagal with a capacity of 600,000 vehicles a year. The original Tiruvottiyur factory became secondary and still builds some limited-run models.
Floods and a British design team
In November 2015 the heaviest rain in Chennai for over a century flooded the city; Royal Enfield cut production by 4,000 motorcycles and shut the Tiruvottiyur and Oragadam plants and the Chennai offices on 1 December. Production restarted at half capacity on 7 December and both plants were back to normal on 14 December. In May 2015 the company made its first acquisition, buying the British chassis specialist Harris Performance Products, which had developed the frame of the Continental GT café racer. Harris works with Royal Enfield’s UK development team, set up in January 2015 at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground in Leicestershire and moved into a new building in May 2017; by the end of 2019 it numbered 155 people and covered everything from concept and clay design to prototyping and validation.
Selling abroad
Royal Enfield now sells in more than 50 countries and passed Harley-Davidson in global sales in 2015. In August 2015 it announced a North American headquarters and a dealership in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, planning to start with the Bullet 500, Classic 500 and Continental GT 535 and to build up about 100 dealerships in American cities. In the same month parent company Eicher entered Indonesia, starting retail from a dealership in Jakarta. Between April and September 2015 domestic sales were 50 per cent higher than a year earlier, despite a falling Indian motorcycle market.
The model range
The range runs from the Bullet, in continuous production since the 1930s and still associated with the Indian police and armed forces, through the Classic 350 and Classic 500, the Thunderbird cruiser, the Meteor 350 and the 650 cc Interceptor, Continental and Super Meteor twins, to the Himalayan adventure bike. The company builds single-cylinder and twin-cylinder engines; the Bullet 500 was dropped for poor sales and a new-generation Bullet 350 was launched on 1 September 2023 at ₹1.74 lakh.
Design and features
- Oldest brand in production: the name has been on motorcycles continuously since 1901.
- One design, many decades: the Bullet, designed in 1932, is the longest-lived motorcycle design in history.
- Military and police following: Indian forces have used Bullets since the 1950s and owning one is still a point of pride.
- Classic-looking range: singles and twins styled after the British original, plus adventure models.
- British development base: chassis work and design are shared with a team in Leicestershire.
Royal Enfield in India versions
- Bullet: the original 350 and 500 cc single, in production since the 1930s.
- Classic 350 and Classic 500: retro-styled versions of the single.
- Thunderbird: the cruiser line, built from 2002 to 2020.
- Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650: twin-cylinder models, the GT with a Harris-developed chassis.
- Meteor 350 and Super Meteor 650: cruisers in the modern range.
- Himalayan: the adventure and off-road model.
The two Indian classics are described in their own articles: the Royal Enfield Bullet and the Royal Enfield Thunderbird. More motorcycles are in the Enfield collection.
Sources
- Royal Enfield, English Wikipedia: company history, factories, model range
