How Royal Enfield went from near-death to selling a million motorcycles a year under Eicher Motors

When Eicher Motors announced its fiscal 2025 results, Royal Enfield—the marquee motorcycle brand it acquired from Madras Motors in 1994—crossed a symbolic yet head-turning milestone of selling a million units in a year, the first in its 124-year history.

More importantly, this is yet another testament to the brand’s near-miraculous turnaround orchestrated by Siddhartha Lal, who took on the reins of the company when it was selling a meagre 24,000 motorcycles in 2000, despite having a production capacity of three times that number, and the sales notwithstanding, Royal Enfield was losing ₹20 crore every year.

When Royal Enfield started floundering in the 1980s, its lenders took the struggling company to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR)—the government body that used to determine the financial health of companies before the National Company Law Tribunal—to seek an investor and a business partner.

However, what is not known by many is that the BIFR first offered the company to TVS’ Venu Srinivasan. TVS already had a joint venture with Suzuki at the time, and therefore, he turned down the offer. Other business groups that rejected Royal Enfield included Sundaram Fasteners, TAFE, and Hercules cycle-maker Murugappa Group, before Siddhartha’s father, Vikram Lal, came on board as an investor in 1990. Such was the state of the storied motorcycle maker known for its iconic thumping sound while riding its bikes, that only Lal saw the potential in what the company could achieve with the right turnaround strategy.

Vikram Lal’s brief seven-year stint saw the company fix the immediately apparent sources where the company was losing money. However, he made an eyebrow-raising decision when he decided to step down from all executive roles in 1997 and handed over the chairmanship of his companies to his trusted lieutenant, Subodh Bhargava. But he asked his son, Siddharth—a motorcycle aficionado yet still wet behind the ears and learning the ropes at Eicher’s obscure mapmaking division—if he wanted to lead the company, to which he agreed.

The 1980s were an epochal moment in India’s two-wheeler industry, with the foray of Japanese two-wheeler brands forging alliances with local manufacturers and bringing in highly fuel-efficient two-wheelers that turned the consumer narrative on its head. While Royal Enfield bikes were gas guzzlers, the competition offered a fuel efficiency of between 70-80 kilometres/litre.

Royal Enfield, under its previous management, tried introducing 100cc motorcycles to compete with the Japanese machinery, but it was nowhere near them, both in terms of quality and reliability. When Siddharth took over, he again faced a similar dilemma—whether to take the plunge in the mass-market segment or strive to become the number one player in a niche segment. As Amrit Raj writes in his book, Indian Icon: A Cult Called Royal Enfield, Siddharth, echoing his father’s belief, is believed to have said that it is better to be the number one in the minds of ten customers, instead of being number two in the minds of 10,000 customers.

This philosophy still stands and is evident with its recent launches. The Classic 650 is a modern take on the brand's iconic design, offering enhanced performance and comfort. The Bear 650 is a scrambler-style motorcycle based on the Interceptor 650 platform, featuring off-road capabilities, or even the Guerrilla 450—a roadster version of the Himalayan 450, equipped with a 452cc liquid-cooled engine, designed for both city commuting and long rides.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that the brand faced, especially in the face of the Japanese onslaught of fuel-efficient motorcycles, was the brand’s image itself. At the time, Royal Enfield was notorious for manufacturing motorcycles that were primarily driven by doodhwalas (milkmen). On top of this, the general idea of motorcycles was simply an affordable way to commute from one point to another. Neither did riding for leisure as an idea exist in India, nor did Royal Enfield command a legion of devout, cult-like following like Harley-Davidson did.

To completely overhaul Royal Enfield’s image—and mainstreaming the idea of leisure riding—is arguably Siddharth’s biggest achievement. He roped in Sachin Chavan, a former auto journalist with Auto Monitor magazine, to build a fraternity of riders and introduce leisure rides in India.

To this day, Royal Enfield’s rides are a huge part of its image now, with Moto Himalaya Ladakh 2025—an exhilarating 10-day expedition through the rugged terrains of Ladakh, offering riders a chance to experience high-altitude landscapes and challenging routes—and Himalayan Adventure – Everest Base Camp 2025, a 10-day trans-Himalayan journey from Kathmandu to the Everest Base Camp in Tibet, traversing some of the world's highest motorable roads, the major rides that were slated for this year.

In fact, the cult-like image of Royal Enfield enthusiasts has become so successful that a Bullet became a deity at a shrine near the town of Pali on the highway connecting Jodhpur and Ahmedabad. The Bullet Baba, as the deity came to be known, is visited by bikers after purchasing new bikes to seek his blessings, or women, who are told to pray for their husbands’ safety while riding on the road.

Eicher was also conscious that it was critical for them to retain the core identity of the brand, despite the dynamic nature of the technologies that went into motorcycles. While certain changes, such as the introduction of an electric, self-start, were welcomed—for it eliminated the problem of the Royal Enfield bikes of yore ‘backfiring’—certain changes were non-negotiable for them.

Towards the turn of the millennium, when India was at the cusp of introducing the first set of emission norms (Bharat Stage-I, or BS-I), there was trepidation in the Royal Enfield camp. While the four-stroke motorcycles could pass the emission norms, certain changes ought to be made to make them compliant.

Lacking the wherewithal to make those changes in-house, it decided to sign an agreement with Austrian engine-maker AVL, only with the condition that the iconic ‘dug dug’ thumping sound of Royal Enfield engines should remain unchanged, something which AVL at first had deemed as “unattainable”. Such was the non-negotiability of the caveat that Eicher threatened to pull the plug on the contract altogether, for it, under no circumstances, wanted to part with the soul of the Royal Enfield motorcycles.

With electrification bringing a new paradigm for two-wheelers, Royal Enfield has also announced its first electric motorcycle, the Flying Flea C6, scheduled for release between January and March 2026. The electric model revives the historic “Flying Flea” name, originally used for a lightweight 125cc, two-stroke motorcycle deployed by parachute during the Second World War. It could traverse through territories where other heavy vehicles could not.

The new FF.C6 combines retro aesthetics with modern electric technology, epitomising the father-and-son duo’s vision of making the brand match stride with technology, but retaining its distinctive, retro identity.