Iconic motorbike maker Harley-Davidson is preparing to tackle India’s famously potholed roads.
The big-engine bike manufacturer has opened its first three dealerships and is planning to launch two more this year in the country of 1.2 billion people where motorcycles are far and away the most popular transport.
The Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based firm, which has been battling weakening sales in the US, is hoping to exploit what it sees as a burgeoning market for its heavyweight bikes in the world’s second-largest motorcycle market after China.
“We see this incredible motorcycling culture here that is waiting for this new category of heavyweight motorcycles,” said Anoop Prakash, managing director of Harley-Davidson India, who fell in love with the motorcycles when he was a US marine.
But the bulky bikes — known as hogs to loyal fans — won’t come cheap.
The range of 12 two-wheelers start at 695,000 rupees (US$15,000) for the least expensive model and range up to Rs3.5 million (US$75,000) — double the US price — due to import duties.
Harley-Davidson doesn’t expect a rush of orders in India where the average cost of a motorbike — seen by most buyers as a transitional vehicle between a bicycle and a car — is around US$1,500.
However, the company hopes as luxury car sales boom in increasingly affluent India so will the market for its snorting high-end bikes which boast 883cc to 1550cc engines.
“We feel there’s great demand for global brands here,” Prakash said.
“This bike is my boyhood dream,” said Umesh Anand, 47, a company chief executive who bought a monster wide-seated Heritage Soft Tail Classic last week at the Harley-Davidson’s New Delhi glitzy showroom.
The firm already operates in more than 70 countries and aims to boost international sales to 40 percent of revenues by 2014 from 33 percent now.
India is the only country where it is building its own dealership market right away rather than piggybacking onto other distributors, said Rod Copes, Harley-Davidson senior international sales vice president.
“Going into India this way is a real vote of confidence in what we believe is the market in India,” Copes said .
The India venture is key for the company which is in the throes of a massive restructuring to cut costs and increase profitability.
Managing director Prakash is reluctant to name sales targets, but he says he has big plans for the company in India where he has tied up with the country’s second-largest lender, ICICI Bank, to offer buyers financing.
He also plans to set up Harley Owners Groups — whence the hog moniker — famed in the US for members riding and partying together while swapping biking tales.
Harley-Davidson’s competition on Indian roads in the cult bike stakes is the Royal Enfield Bullet — known as the “Thumper” for its signature thud-thud four-stroke engine that has been cruising Indian roads for more than half a century.
But the engine power of the Royal Enfield — and its cost — is much lower.
The Royal Enfield ranges in price from Rs90,000 to Rs150,000.
“The Royal Enfield was the first cruiser [in India], but I think at 500cc and below it is an entire different experience from our higher performance machine — there’s room for both of us,” Prakash said.
Harley-Davidson says it believes its bikes can easily stand up to the rigors of India’s unforgiving roads, which are some of most bone-jarring and congested in the world with an eclectic mix of transport from cars to camels, trucks and elephants.
“I’ve ridden these motorcycles on roads that could break trucks, but we keep riding them,” said Harley Davidson Indian service manager John McEnaney.
Still, Royal Enfield believes it has an edge over Harley Davidson when it comes to the servicing department.
“You can find yourself in any corner of India and there will be a mechanic who can put your Royal Enfield together,” Royal Enfield product marketing manager Praveen Prakash said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last