Royal Enfield on Tuesday unveiled two motorcycles—the Interceptor and the Continental GT—at Eicma 2017 motor show in Milan, making its foray into the burgeoning middleweight motorcycle category in India and elsewhere.
Both the Royal Enfield Interceptor and Continental GT 650 are powered by an all-new, air-cooled 648 cc twin-cylinder engine that makes 47 bhp of power and 53 NM of torque. The engine was developed at Royal Enfield’s technology centre in Leicestershire, England, in collaboration with the firm’s UK staff at the new Bruntingthorpe facility and its team in Chennai. This engine will serve as a global platform that would carry the Royal Enfield legacy and character into modern context, the bike maker said.
The new motorcycles are being seen as direct competition to Harley-Davidson Inc. in the mid-sized motorcycle category in India. The US bike maker dominates the segment with its Street 750 model.
With the arrival of Royal Enfield, however, it faces a locally-owned distribution network that dwarfs Harley’s roughly 30 outlets by a multiple of 24. Were Enfield to ship even 10 of its new big bikes to each of its about 700 locations, it could double Harley’s 3,700 in annual sales, Reuters reported Tuesday.
The Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650 are expected to retail at Rs3 lakh onwards in India, though details on final pricing are currently not available.