Royal Enfield to invest Rs 1,000 crore towards EV manufacturing facility in TN; First EV vehicle to be rolled out by 2025

 C Shivakumar @ CHENNAI:
Royal Enfield will be investing Rs 1,000 crore in Tamil Nadu towards electric vehicle manufacturing facility, product development and new product  development under Internal Combustion Engine portfolio.

Royal Enfield sources said it plans to roll out the first electric vehicle from its Vallam plant by 2025. "Royal Enfield has installed capacity of 1.2 million vehicles at its plant in Oragadam and Vallam. The production of electric vehicles will happen in the Vallam plant," Royal Enfield said.

This comes after Eicher Motors, the parent company, recorded fifth consecutive quarter of highest revenues at Rs 3,804 crore, and third consecutive quarter of highest Profit after Tax at Rs 906 crore.

Royal Enfield sources said that, "We are aggressively building our EV technology and are working towards creating a differentiated motorcycle that will have a global appeal. With our recent strategic investment of € 50 million in Stark Future, a Spanish EV start-up, we have made considerable progress on our EV journey. With their thought leadership in the EV technology space coupled with our engineering and industrialization capabilities, we believe this is a synergistic partnership and we plan to share EV platforms in the future."

"We are also building a strong team internally, and bringing in the right kind of talent. We have built a highly capable team with EV specialists who are working on the technology, business and customer aspects in the segment, at present we have more than 65 people as a part of our EV team.," sources told The New Indian express.

"We are progressing on our EV journey and have several ideas that are already in advanced stages of testing. Our approach toward our electro mobility journey is very different and we have spent considerable time to understand the market and trends. As a part of our rebalance vision, we have identified that both EV and ICE go hand in hand," Royal Enfield said.

Interestingly, Royal Enfield’s foray into EV comes when its rivals Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India have already entered the fray.