Reference Auto

‘Bikers envy, owner’s pride’: Well, that’s what a Harley-Davidson is. Realising its potential, the iconic motorcycles giant has put its money on India, where it plans to set up an assembly unit mid-next year, making it the second such facility outside the US. Fans can now jump in joy as this move could make the Harley-Davidson cheaper by over 60% in India!

“We are building a strong foundation for our business in India, first by establishing a world-class dealer network and now by commencing completely knocked down or CKD assembly operations,” Harley-Davidson India managing director Anoop Prakash said.

Currently, Harley-Davidson India imports completely assembled motorcycles from its US final assembly plants. These attract an import duty of 91.28%. Besides India (outside the US), the company has CKD assembly operations in Brazil.

“Harley-Davidson is moving forward with the launch of operations in India to assemble motorcycles for the Indian market from the component kits supplied by its US plants and it expects the facility to be operational in the first half of 2011,” the company said.

Commenting on the plans, Harley-Davidson Motor Company president and chief operating officer Matthew S Levatich said, “Given the strong response we have received in the initial months of retail operations, we believe this is the right investment for this important market.”

After the Haryana facility becomes operational, Harley-Davidson India will import CKD kits for select models from the company’s US plants and employees at the Haryana facility will then assemble the components into finished motorcycles, the company added.

Harley-Davidson came to India in January this year and hopes to sell over 250 bikes by the end of this year. Its most popular model in India is the Sportster 883 from the company’s Sportster family, which has four bikes. The entry level version comes for Rs 6.95 lakh. Prakash added the bike major would announce the models it would assemble in India and their prices in January.

The company’s highest-priced model, the custom vehicle operations or CVO, comes for a cool Rs 35 lakh. Harley-Davidson sells 12 models India against 35 models in the global market.

The Indian market is swamped with superbikes even though the segment is still in the budding stage. Although all two-wheeler giants bringing in their luxury liners are not here to stay, the first name that comes to mind when there is talk of superbike is Harley-Davidson.

This unparalleled brand name, which the legendary bike maker has gained over the years, is surely going to make Harley-Davidson among the top premium bike sellers in India in the long term.