Royal Enfield motorcycles are 2 times COSTLIER abroad: Dealer explains why

The Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350 sold in India is priced at about Rs. 1.7 lakhs, on-road Delhi. The same motorcycle  sold in Australia is priced at Rs. 3.41 lakhs, which is a little more than double the cost. And this is the same case  in other countries such as New Zealand, United Kingdom, the United States, Thailand, etc. What gives? Well, a Royal  Enfield dealer from New Zealand explains why the same motorcycles are so much more expensive abroad than they are in India. Here, watch the video for yourself.

As the video explains, the Royal Enfield motorcycles that are built in India for export, on an identical production line as the one used for the domestic motorcycles, get a few changes to meet regulations abroad. One major change has to do with emissions. Most developed countries have Euro 4 emission norms, which are tighter than the BS4 emission norms that India currently has.

To meet these tighter emission norms, Royal Enfield needs to equip the export-spec motorcycles with more expensive emission control equipment. For instance, the catalytic converters on the export-spec Royal Enfields are more expensive. Export-spec motorcycles also get an O2 sensor, which is omitted in the domestic models.

Apart from these key changes, the other bits that are different on the export-spec Royal Enfields are not expensive  at all. And these bits are certainly not so expensive to make export-spec Royal Enfield cost double the domestic model. So, the dealer isn’t really revealing the much fatter profit margins that the company is likely to have on the  export models.

Perhaps, even Royal Enfield dealers operating abroad get much bigger profit margins on the motorcycles they sell. Come to think of it, this makes sense as Royal Enfield motorcycles sell in very small numbers abroad. So, this  explains why Royal Enfield motorcycles sold abroad are so pricey despite them not being significantly better than those sold in India.