Royal Enfield motorcycle sales roaring: in India

Did you see the amazing mass of Royal Enfield motors
at the Chennai factory in the Vita Brevis Films video?

Future historians of Royal Enfield may view our time as a crisis for the company as it struggles to meet demand for  motorcycles in its home market, India. Customers there have to wait as long as 14 months for their new Royal Enfields, the Indian financial web site Dalal Street reports.

Will future authors mourn that sales opportunities were missed? Or will the new factory at Oragadam, to open in March, come to the rescue in time, boosting production by 50 percent?

This a crisis corporations elsewhere in the world must dream about. Except for the occasional long lines at Apple Stores, Americans mostly don't line up to buy consumer items unless prodded with low prices.

Supply seems to meet demand, even in the case of Royal Enfield motorcycles. U.S. dealers are advertising Royal Enfield Bullets, for immediate delivery.

In fact, if you watch the ads, there are some nice bargains out there on barely used "demonstrators."

There is no comparison, of course. Motorcycle sales in the U.S. are steady, but Dalal Street says the Indian market for motorcycles above 250cc "grew by 73.5 per cent."

"Royal Enfield, due to a loyal customer base, fan following, niche positioning and pricing (lower than Harley Davidson and Triumph), has managed to see massive growth in demand," Dalal Street writes.

It's hard to beat those attributes.

Dalal Street provided a chart of Royal Enfield sales in recent years. The numbers are impressive.

Year	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012 (est)
Sales	36,786	43,298	51,955	52,576	74,626	100,000
Growth (%)		17.70	19.99	1.20	41.94	34.00