Ever since the Harley-Davidson X440 went on sale in India at the beginning of July 2023, the excitement level has seemingly been high. Naturally, both Harley and its manufacturing partner, Hero MotoCorp, are excited about their new jointly produced creation. Just as naturally, they want everyone else to be, too. Of course, just because an OEM wants the public to get excited about its latest bikes doesn’t always mean it works out that way. The true test there is always in the numbers.
Toward the end of July 2023, when Harley CEO Jochen Zeitz publicly stated that Harley-Davidson X440 pre-bookings had “exceeded expectations,” we wondered what the numbers behind that observation were. Our eyebrows raised further shortly after that rather cryptic statement with no data, when Hero also announced that a price hike was imminent after the first pre-booking window closed on August 3, 2023.
At last, on August 8, 2023, Hero MotoCorp finally dropped the number of pre-bookings on us. In a press release, Hero announced that it received a total of 25,597 pre-bookings for the Harley-Davidson X440 during that first one-month pre-booking window.
Considering that in 2022, Harley-Davidson reported entire yearly sales throughout the Asia-Pacific region as being 27,900 bikes, that number is both significant and substantial. While it’s true that the X440 is offered at a more affordable price than traditional big Harley machines, it certainly seems like a quick way to double your number of units sold—or maybe even more—in a single year.
What’s more, Hero also notes that a full 65 percent of the pre-bookings are for the top-end version of the X440. At the introductory pricing scheme that Hero introduced when launching the Harley X440, that version was priced at ₹ 2.69 lakh, or about $3,242 if converted on August 8, 2023. The lowest-priced X440 variant started at ₹ 2.29 lakh, or about $2,760 for the duration of the July 4 through August 3, 2023 first pre-booking period.
“We are delighted with the customer response to Harley-Davidson X440. It is heartening to see the confidence shown by the customers in Hero MotoCorp’s foray into this segment. What is even more heartening is that the majority of our bookings are coming from the top-end model, clearly indicating that customers are willing to pay a higher price for the right brand and right model," Hero MotoCorp CEO Niranjan Gupta said in a statement.
"This is just the beginning of our journey to win in the premium segment. More Iconic launches will follow soon, as we ensure our presence across the portfolio,” he added.
So far, Hero has not yet announced when the next booking window for the Harley-Davidson X440 will open and has only publicly stated that it is “coming soon.” Production on the bike to fulfill the existing 25,597 pre-bookings is scheduled to commence in September 2023, with deliveries to customers to follow in October 2023.
