Royal Enfield CEO and Managing Director Siddhartha Lal has confirmed that a bigger-engined Himalayan is on the way from the Indian company.
In an interview with Motorcycle Magazine, Lal admitted that the company has already picked out which models will get a larger engine and that the motorcycles that are on their way are being built for the Indian market.
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Lal said: “So, about higher capacity, we have selected which models we will be making bigger and more powerful versions of than we have today, and the Himalayan is one of those – but because our Indian customer says so, not anyone overseas. However, I recognise of course that this is a benefit for or export sales, and as we get close to meeting demand in India for our products, then we must start to lift our sales overseas. In the next five-year horizon, we intend Royal Enfield should be No.1 in global sales in the middleweight segment.
“I’d say that in the order of 10% of our motorcycles in India are now 500cc, and 10% is now 60,000 bikes a year, so it’s not a small number anymore – and learning from that, you realise there is a case from the Indian perspective for a bigger engined Himalayan, not just for export markets, I always come back to India because any product that we do manufacture with an eye on other parts of the world has to have its roots in India, where we have 96% of Royal Enfield customers.”
Currently, the Royal Enfield Himalayan’s Long Stroke 411cc single cylinder mill produces 24.5bhp of power and 32Nm of torque.
It’s most likely that the company is going to use the 750cc twin that we’ve been showing you over the past six months here on MoreBikes. Lal also said in the interview that Royal Enfield: “Won’t go beyond that (750cc), and we won’t go below 250cc either.”
The mechanical details about the new twin-cylinder 750cc are scarce but according to Indian media the new engine it is likely to deliver over 50bhp and kick-out around 60Nm of torque.
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