Harley-Davidson Motor Company (HDMC) has plans to setup an assembly plant for its bikes in India. The cult bike maker also plans to establish a product development centre for the design and development of bikes for the Indian market.

Rod Copes, Senior Vice-President, International Sales, Marketing and Business Development, HDMC -

Going forward, we’re going to be looking at product development at more international bases. What’s the product that customers in different countries want? This will be in the third phase of our growth strategy in India—the first two being the launch with CBUs (completely built units) and the assembling of CKDs (completely knocked down kits).

Harley-Davidson is definitely looking to setup an assembly unit for its Indian operations, but it first wants to ensure that there is a sufficient sales volume of its bikes, in order to justify the high investment that an assembly unit will require. The company believes that it will reach a financially viable sales volume figure for an assembly plant over the next two years.

Harley-Davidson currently imports its bikes into India as completely Built Units (CBU’s), paying 80 % import duties for the bikes. The company could bring this figure down to 30 % if it starts to assemble its bikes from Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits sourced from abroad.

The company is looking to further expand its dealer network in the country from its present figure of just 3 dealers to around 12 over the next few months. The company is also looking to start rental services of its bikes through its dealer network by the end of next year.

Anoop Prakash, Managing Director, Harley-Davidson India -

We are looking at cities and states with strong biking cultures for setting up dealers.

Harley-Davidson currently has a range of 12 models in India starting from a price of Rs. 6.95 lakh and going all the way up to a whopping 34.95 lakhs. The company has a tie up with ICICI bank to offer easy and hassle free finance services to its prospective customers. But, if you’ve been dreaming of a Harley-Davidson and don’t have the money to chalk out on the full payment or the finance scheme’s down payment, wait and save up for a couple of years and hopefully by then your dream Harley-Davidson ride should be much cheaper and will also be assembled in India.

Source – Livemint