Royal Enfield’s ‘Despatch’ sold out in 26 minutes

The limited edition bikes, inspired by the ‘despatch riders’ of the World Wars, were to be sold online only.

July 15, 2015 06:18 pm | Updated 07:18 pm IST - New Delhi

Niche bike maker Royal Enfield on Wednesday said it has sold its entire inventory of 200 units of limited edition motorcycles within 26 minutes of opening of online booking.

Royal Enfield, the two-wheeler division of Eicher Motors had unveiled a range of limited edition bikes in May, inspired by the ‘despatch riders’ of the World Wars, which were be sold online only.

“We have sold out our entire inventory of the 200 limited edition despatch motorcycles for India within 26 minutes of opening the online booking on store.royalenfield.com,” Royal Enfield, president, Rudratej Singh told PTI.

In a world where products are marketed for planned obsolescence, the success of the despatch motorcycle range is a celebration of classic timeless design and Royal Enfield’s rich heritage, he added.

The despatch motorcycle range is priced at Rs 2.16 lakh (onroad Delhi).

The Chennai-based two-wheeler maker, which currently sells popular bikes like Bullet, Classic, Thunderbird and Continental GT, plans to invest Rs. 500 crore this year on R&D, new product development, capacity expansion and setting up of two technology development centres in Chennai and UK.

The investment would also go into the phase two of its Oragadam plant in Chennai.

The production capacity of the company is also slated to go up from 30,000 units a month last year to 50,000 units a month by this year-end.

In the first quarter Royal Enfield posted record sales of 92,845 units, a growth of 44.5 per cent over first quarter of 2014.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.