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Royal Enfield rolled out its first motorcycle from the new Oragadam, India facility, Royal Enfield has witnessed a huge surge in demand in the recent past, recording a growth of over 50% for each of the last two years with demand continuing to outpace supply.

Mr Siddhartha Lal, MD & CEO, Eicher Motors Ltd. said: “At Royal Enfield we have recorded a major milestone today with this plant at Oragadam becoming operational. We have been extremely successful in stretching the capacity of our existing 60 year old plant to record levels – achieving production of over 12,000 motorcycles in the month of March 2013. We have conceived this new facility on a much larger tract of land and created a master-plan that can take the eventual production here to over 500,000 per year. With the speedy execution of the first phase of the plan, we have revised our production target upwards in 2013 – to 175,000 motorcycles from both plants. However, even as we start commercial production today, we have already begun working on the second phase of expansion at Oragadam, which will further increase the production capacity to 250,000 motorcycles in 2014. With this new facility, we now have the ability to scale our production quantity quickly in response to market demand.”

The plant has been designed to optimize cost of production through relevant automation while retaining the human craftsmanship. Towards this, a new CED paint shop with a painting capacity of 600 motorcycles per day has been installed in the plant. Further, to ensure consistency and less wastage, a robotic painting system and powder coating system have also been added. At the same time, processes such as the legendary pin-striping continue to be done through craftsmen who lend that special human touch to each motorcycle. The vehicle assembly line at Oragadam comes with several features such as ergonomic assembly work stations, torque controlled tools with feedback device and a capacity of producing one motorcycle a minute, or over 800 per day on two shifts. In addition, chassis dynamometers and a 1.4 kilometer test track within the factory premises allows for the motorcycles to be thoroughly tested before they are dispatched for customers.

The oldest motorcycle company in continuous production, Royal Enfield made its first motorcycle in 1901. A division of Eicher Motors Limited, it has been a pioneer of powerful four stroke technology since 1955 in India. Royal Enfield’s product line‐up includes the Bullet, Classic and Thunderbird models in both 350 and 500cc displacements. Royal Enfield operates through 11 company-operated stores and 250 dealers in all major cities and towns. Royal Enfield motorcycles are exported to over 40 countries across the world including the USA, Japan, UK, several European and Latin American countries, as well as the Middle East and South Asia. Classic Motorworks is the exclusive importer and distributor for the Royal Enfield in the US.