Harley-Davidson to pull out of India

Yet another iconic American automotive brand is pulling out of India and this time it is Harley-Davidson.

In an official statement, the company said: “Harley-Davidson plans to close its manufacturing facility in Bawal and significantly reduce the size of its sales office in Gurgaon. The company is communicating with its customers in India and will keep them updated on future support. The Harley-Davidson dealer network will continue to serve customers through the contract term.”

The company has announced that as “part of The Rewire, an overhaul of its operating model and market structure, the company is changing its business model in India and evaluating options to continue to serve its customers.”  

Things have just not gone right for Harley in India and the renewed priorities at headquarters in Milwaukee show that the curtains have fallen on the company’s India innings. Eleven years after Harley-Davidson entered India and set up a plant in Bawal, Haryana two years later, the company has called it a day, preferring to quit rather than hang on and fight on in a market which has become ultra competitive. It came in with a bang, strengthened the global relevance of India as a manufacturing hub with the Street 500 and 750 but just lost its way thereafter.

Sales have, at best, been averaging 3,000 units annually which is hardly good news from the viewpoint of profitability. 

Red lights have been flashing for H-D in India for quite some time as sales have been falling consistently. From 3,413 units in FY2018, India sales numbers dropped to 2,676 units in FY2019 and to 2,470 units in FY2020. Total sales in April-August 2020: 412 motorcycles.