Revealed: Royal Enfield Electric Bike Launch Timeline
Modified On May 14, 2024 03:32 PM By Irfanfor Royal Enfield Himalayan Electric
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Also, we’ve analyzed what the first electric bike from Royal Enfield could be
Royal Enfield has been expanding its lineup for the past few years to include bikes catering to more and more varied customer bases and the manufacturer also has plans to launch several new bikes this year as well. Is an electric bike part of those plans? Well, a recent post earnings call has revealed new details about the timeline of the first Royal Enfield electric bike.
The major reveal from that call was that the manufacturer is working on creating an altogether separate commercial team to handle Royal Enfield’s EV department. The team has also made several moves accordingly. Umesh Krishnappa, who was formerly the Chief Technology Officer at Ola Electric, has joined to lead that team. Mario Alvisi, formerly with Ducati, has joined as the Chief Growth Officer. Royal Enfield has been working on building its expertise in the EV space for some time now. Back in 2022, the manufacturer’s parent company Eicher Motors made a EUR 50 million investment in Stark Future, the electric dirt bike maker from Spain.
Fast forward to November 2023, Royal Enfield unveiled its first electric bike concept, the Royal Enfield Himalayan Electric at EICMA 2023. The manufacturer said then that the bike is basically a ‘testbed’ for its future electric concepts and offerings. As to whether the electric ADV will be the first electric offering from the manufacturer, we highly doubt that. If someone is looking to buy an ADV, they would mostly like to use that bike for touring and off-road adventures, which mainly requires range. That is something our current battery technology and the charging infrastructure won’t be able to provide properly.
That’s why we think the first electric bike from Royal Enfield will be something similar to a retro roadster that’s primarily meant for use in the city and for the occasional highway runs. And we also think that a prototype of the final production version could be unveiled at EICMA 2024. Royal Enfield confirmed in the earnings call that the launch won’t be happening in this financial year. We think it could happen sometime by late 2025 or early 2026 and might get a price tag of about Rs 2.50 lakh (ex-showroom).