Ambitious plans at Royal Enfield: Bosses drop hint about middleweight future

Royal Enfield bosses have confirmed to MCN that there are plans in place to increase their line-up within a year, with a focus on the 250cc-750cc bracket.

The Indian firm celebrated their best-ever sales last month, with 82,000 machines hitting the road. On top of this, the Meteor 350, Classic 350 and Interceptor 650 are all inside the UK’s top 10 best-selling motorcycles of 2022.

What’s the secret? Arun Gopal, Enfield’s Head of Business for Europe, explains: “The mid-sized segment is a nice, sweet spot. It makes our range more suitable for many more customers.

“We may not be for everybody, but… we are accessible and stick to our roots of building simple, old-school, beautiful motorcycles that are fun to ride.”

Royal Enfield’s current range revolves around three air-cooled engine platforms: a 349cc single for the Hunter, Meteor, and Classic, a 411cc single for the Himalayan and Scram, plus a 648cc twin for the Continental GT and Interceptor.

Over recent months MCN has seen spy shots that show updates to the 650-twin range and an all-new single-cylinder 450 off-roader, with liquid-cooling and a 21in front wheel.

“The range will increase,” says Gopal. “It’s difficult to give specifics now, but there are new platforms, and new variants coming.

“We will expand our current platforms sooner rather than later. I can say that in the next 12 months we should be in a very, very different situation.”

While discussing model expansion, Gopal also explained that every new machine developed by Royal Enfield must first make sense in their domestic market before it goes global.

“We will not do anything if it doesn’t make sense for us in India,” he said. “That’s our largest customer base and India today is the largest two-wheeler market in the world.

“Sales peaked at 18 million motorcycles in a year. The total market in Europe is 1.5 million, so what India sells in a month is what the whole of Europe sells in a year. It has to make sense in India.”

The desire to see additional models is echoed by Chief of Design, Mark Wells, who oversees development strategy and models heading to market.

“We’re really ambitious and we’ve got lots in the pipeline,” he says. “I believe we’ve already said that we’re working on some new engine platforms and multiple new models and getting the most out of existing model platforms.

“We’re diversifying our product line; we’re expanding what we’re offering and we’re going to give more opportunities to more people. And it will all deliver that level of accessibility and that fun. Because that’s what biking should be.”

With Gopal adding: “I’d like to steal a line that says: ‘Royal Enfield will have all that you want and nothing that you don’t.’ We don’t want to just fit stuff to bikes because what does that do? It leaves consumers confused.”

What these new platforms will become remains to be seen, but Enfield’s future looks bright.