UM Motorcycles to enter into JV for making bikes in India

UM Motorcycles, which marked its debut at the recently concluded Auto Expo in Delhi, is soon going to make an announcement of entering into a joint venture with a local company. While the as-yet-unknown firm will manufacture bikes for UM Motorcycles, the American brand will handle all other operations ranging from imports, R&D to branding and dealerships in India.

Revealing the details to Autocar Professional, Rajeev Mishra, director, UM Motorcycles India, told that “to achieve cost competitiveness in the market, we plan to locally manufacture our bikes. We will soon announce the name of our JV partner, which will execute the manufacturing operations while we will handle all other areas. However, setting up such as facility will take time and we expect to begin our local manufacturing by April 2015.”

To begin with, the company plans to locally assemble four models – Renegade Commando and Commando limited edition (both powered by 223cc, single-cylinder engine) and two variants of the Renegade Sport (with 223cc and 200cc engine options) – and plans to launch them in the second half of this calendar year. “We do not plan to do 100 percent CKD of these models. Expect local content up to 50 percent in our assembly operations; we have already lined up our parts suppliers for the same,” added Mishra. The bikes are to be assembled at an undisclosed location in Uttarakhand.

The company, which is busy working on an apt market positioning of its yet-to-come bikes in the retail market, is eyeing the 200cc-300cc segment and an affordable price bracket of Rs 80,000- Rs 150,000 (ex-showroom, India).

Highlighting the marketing strategy, Mishra said that “we plan to focus on the 200cc-300cc segment and we are doing the math to position our models in the affordable ex-showroom price bracket of Rs 80,000-Rs 1,50,000. Riders who are looking to buy Royal Enfield bikes have limited choices today and we plan to offer more options in that segment. Our Commando cruisers not only offer solid build quality but are also high on technology and innovative features.”