Royal Enfield has said that the waiting period for its bikes will next year once it’s new plant at Oragadam near Chennai commences operations in first quarter. Currently almost all Royal Enfield models have a waiting period of around six to eight months.
Since the Chennai based manufacturer launched the Classic range of bikes (350 and 500), it has been swamped with orders both from India and abroad. The manufacturer’s current capacity at Tiruvottiyur plant is functioning at full capacity, but is still not being able to meet the demand for the bikes. Running in this manner has also resulted in a decline in quality with regard to the fit and finish of the bikes.
Now, the company hopes that these problems will get ironed out once the new plant opens. “The Oragadam plant will have a production capacity of 1.5 lakh units per annum by March 2013,” said Royal Enfield chief executive officer Venki Padmanabhan. The first vehicle to roll out of the new plant will be the recently launched Thunderbird Twinspark 500 and the refreshed Thunderbird Twinspark 350.
