The first entry-level premium motorcycle to go on sale later this year will be the Harley-Davidson Sprint in the Indian market
Hero MotoCorp and Harley-Davidson are planning to expand their partnership for rolling out multiple new entry-level motorcycles for the global markets. The companies had forged an alliance in 2020 and the X440 under Harley badging was the first model to emerge from this collaboration. Later on, Hero introduced its own version of the X440 in the form of the Mavrick 440. Now, it has been learnt that multiple new bike launches from Hero and Harley are likely to take place during this financial year, starting with the Sprint.
Harley-Davidson Sprint will be launched later this year, and it will be followed by several new models. These motorcycles will not be limited to India but, as sources tell us, they will also be exported to some of the emerging markets across the world. “Hero is an important partner, and we continue to work with them in support of our strategy to expand access to Harley-Davidson in key markets,” Harley-Davidson told ET Auto.
Harley-Davidson has extensive plans to use India as its new manufacturing hub for shipping motorcycles to other countries while it continues to co-develop these with the India-based two-wheeler brand. Harshavardhan Chitale, CEO of Hero MotoCorp, recently confirmed that multiple new jointly developed Harley-badged bikes will be launched this year. However, he declined to comment when asked if these would be shipped out of India.
“The Hero-Harley collaboration doesn’t restrict sales to India only-if Harley finds suitability for the product in its global markets, it can take it from Hero to sell elsewhere; that decision rests with Harley,” he said in a recent interaction. Earlier this year, Harley-Davidson had announced a new product strategy, titled ‘Back to Bricks’, for gaining market share and increasing its retail volumes.
As part of ‘Back to Bricks’ product strategy, Harley-Davidson will launch 20 new motorcycles and variants in the next three years, which will be based on its existing platforms. This was revealed to the investors in a presentation last month by none other than Artie Starrs, CEO & Global President, Harley-Davidson. The American brand’s global sales numbers have gone down by 40 percent between 2019 and 2025.
Hero MotoCorp will use its Neemrana factory in Rajasthan specifically for wheeling out premium motorcycles. In addition, the world’s largest two-wheeler brand has also accelerated work on its premium chain of ‘Premia’ showrooms with more than 130 touchpoints now up and running in various parts of the country. Harley too had a dedicated production facility in India in Bawal (Haryana) but it was shut down in 2019 due to declining sales volumes and subsequent financial losses.
