Harley Davidson Review

31Oct/081

American bike Major Harley Davidson has made the final move to hit the Indian roads. They expressed their intention to enter the Indian auto market in 2005 but their plans were kept on hold due to some differences they had with the Indian government on the import duty of bikes. But after there was a new quid pro quo between the U.S and the Indian government in 2007, India relaxed its import policy to a great extent to facilitate import of Harley Davidson super bikes which have a capacity over 800cc. The range of motorcycles from Harley Davidson starts from its 883cc roadster.

India is considered to have the second largest motorcycle market, only after China, with an amazing number of more than 7 million motorcycles sold every year. Harley Davidson therefore faces tough competition from a number of existing India auto giants, who are leaders in their own business. Bajaj produces some of the high end bikes in the names of the Pulsar 220 cc and Discoverer. Hero Honda is another major who produces some great bikes like the Karizma and the Glamour Fl. Other reason that worries Harley is the fact that since India is a price sensitive market and the fuel prices are ever raising, customers generally looks for fuel efficient bikes.

The price of the smallest Harley which is the 883cc Sportster is around Rs.2.9 lakh ($6,000) in the U.S.; and when it is imported in India, the price shoots up to more than Rs.4 lakh due to more than 100% tariff. This makes the task of Harley even more difficult because an average Indian can buy a car for a mere 2 lakhs and by the next year, India is set to have a car of only 1 lakh, courtesy Tata motors. Harley faces this major problem in pricing its bikes for the typical auto market of India. Not only it is the price that worries Harley’s Indian foray, there are many technical requirements that are not met by the company. This is because the two wheeler norms of India are one of the toughest to follow and with the new auto fuel policy that is set to be imposed in 2008, India will surely become one of the toughest market for major two-wheeler companies to comply. Already there have been reports of Harley Davidson exceeding more than 6 times the permissible emission limit for two wheelers.

Although Harley Davidson have entered the Indian market in a bitter way, company sources say that they do not expect to sell too many motor bikes in India. The only hope that lies with the company is importing nearly 2000 of its overall products to India in the next three years. As of now, Harley has already an Indian customer who owns the Road king 1440cc, 883cc sportster and the Diana Low Rider 1340cc. Harley Davidson expects to roll out its new version of its Sportster and some other vehicles which are expected to be in the range of Rs.3.99 lakhs – Rs.14 lakhs targeting the new rich youth of India.