US cruiser makes inroads into TN market

UM Lohia Two Wheelers, the Indian arm of the American motorcycle maker, UM International LLC, along with Lohia Auto unveiled the Renegade Commando Classic and Commando Mojave cruisers in Chennai, on Monday. Ayush Lohia, Director UM Lohia Two Wheelers Pvt Ltd said, “We started our journey in September 2016 and it has been a good journey so far. There is a latent demand for such bikes in India. This past one year, until Aug, we sold about 10,000 vehicles. We hope to sell about 25,000 to 28,000 units this fiscal. Expectations for the next fiscal hover around 50,00060,000 vehicles. We have tied up with 57 dealers Pan-India and they are already operational. We expect to ramp up this number to 72 by Deepavali. In TN, we have two operational dealers in Chennai and Coimbatore, followed by one in Puducherry. We expect to add one more in Madurai by the festive season.” 

The Commando is the company’s top selling model in India, which comprises about 65 to 70 per cent of the sales. “We have created the segment for highway-ready cruisers priced above Rs 1.6 lakh, and we are dominating that segment. So, we have an aggressive plan for growth and expanding this category,” he adds. 

Jose Villegas, Director UM India, says, “The Indian market is growing. However, the market for 500 cc plus vehicles is minuscule. We anticipate that customers buying 300 cc or 500 cc vehicles will gradually move on to the 500 cc plus category (700-800 cc). A big percentage of about 5-6 mn customers riding in this segment will look at the upgrading option then. India is also our export hub for higher cc bikes, and bikes made in our Kashipur plant are being sold in Bhutan and Nepal. We have manufacturing facilities in Thailand, China and Philippines for the Asian market.” 

US-based UM International, LLC & Lohia Auto joined hands in September 2014 to form UM Lohia Two-Wheelers (P) Ltd (UML). So far, an investment of Rs 100 cr has gone into this JV for business expansion. Manufacturing has been already underway at the Lohia Auto’s Kashipur facility in Uttarakhand which will also support the Government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.