We’ve talked about how Indian motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield has been one of the fastest-growing motorcycle makers of the modern era. The brand propelled itself into the spotlight thanks largely to its 650 Twins, transforming itself into a mainstream brand from a once-obscure Indian company.
This year alone, Royal Enfield has launched numerous bikes, each looking to make a name for themselves in their respective segments. Personally, bikes like the Himalayan 450, Shotgun 650, and Guerrilla 450 were the most memorable. And Royal Enfield has already promised an equally, if not even more exciting year ahead in 2025.
And indeed, RE seems to be anticipating surging demand for its bikes, as the company is looking to ramp up the production of its international market offerings. For reference, for 2024, Royal Enfield sold in excess of 900,000 motorcycles. However, of this massive volume, less than 78,000 bikes were sold outside of India.
As such, it’s clear that Enfield needs to provide a bigger allocation to its exports.
The solution to this, apparently, was not to produce more bikes in India, but rather, set up a new production facility in Thailand to cater to the Asia Pacific region. The new factory is set to produce upwards of 30,000 motorcycles a year, and is located in Samut Prakan, just south of Bangkok. The new facility is RE’s sixth independent factory outside of India, and joins the likes of Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
And while those factories cater to the demand of the US and other Asian markets, the new Thailand facility will serve the needs of the rapidly growing ASEAN market, with countries like Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam the most likely to benefit from the added supply of bikes.
The importance of the ASEAN market was echoed by company CCO Yadvinder Singh Guleria. “With markets like Asia Pacific offering great potential for the mid-size motorcycle segment, our strategic intent has been to move closer to these markets and grow the business. This demonstrates our commitment to the market potential and the growing motorcycle community.”
So yeah, clearly, Royal Enfield sees massive potential for both the Asian market, as well as its small to mid-sized offerings. The latter is a trend we’ve been seeing on the global stage, too, as more and more people gravitate towards more approachable and sensible machines, rather than high-performance, ultra-high-tech bikes with over-inflated price tags.
Sources: Le Repaire Des Motards, Motorcycle Sports
