Royal Enfield Thumps Back To Life

The severity of the coronavirus pandemic has brought the entire world to a grinding halt. On March 23, India went into a nationwide lockdown, forcing all automobile manufacturers including Royal Enfield to suspend their operations. But now, complying with the recent government directives announced on May 1, 2020, the company has resumed production at its plants in Chennai.

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The company has restarted production at its Oragadam plant and other manufacturing plants: Tiruvottiyur and Vallam Vadagal - will be started in a phased manner. Royal Enfield says that it’s operations are being restarted in a staggered manner with minimal staff in a single shift. Since the lockdown hasn’t been lifted completely, there are still issues with public and private transportation. Hence Royal Enfield has chosen to allow employees living in and around the plant location to work. The company says it is ensuring all the safety norms and social distancing measures are being followed.

Royal Enfield has also clarified that all its corporate offices in Chennai, Gurugram and UK Technical Centre will continue to remain closed and employees will continue to work from home until further notice.

As for dealerships, the brand says around 120 showrooms have commenced partial operations and Royal Enfield hopes to have a total of 300 dealerships up and running by mid-May. Of course, all these dealerships will be adhering to necessary safety protocols to minimise the risk of infection. Thanks to the lockdown, Royal Enfield’s sales figures took a severe hit in the month of April with a tally of just 91 units. With the new measures in place, dealerships should be able to make up for the loss at least to a certain extent. Since both the plants and the dealerships are now working with a limited strength of employees, expect the number of bikes to be sold to be lower than normal. It remains to be seen as to how this will affect the delivery timelines of existing bookings.

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To ensure potential customers still get to experience a taste of Royal Enfield motorcycles, the brand will offer ‘Home test-rides’ too. Additionally, the company has also extended the warranty and free service validity for two months considering everyone’s motorcycles have been lying unused during these trying times. As far as Royal Enfield’s rides are concerned, expect them to resume only after the lockdown is lifted fully and once the government permits free movement of all vehicles across the country.