Let me compare Royal Enfield sales with its rivals to present a picture of how tight a grip it has in the segment that it operates in..
Well, let us accept that Royal Enfield has a separate fan following. It has a dedicated base that mostly considers motorcycles that are classic, old, rustic and not insanely performance-oriented! We have always talked about the fact that Royal Enfield is big and has a lion’s share in its segment. Now that we have the complete sales data for the last financial year, let me tell you, in some numbers, how ‘BIG’ Royal Enfield actually is and what is the status of others who are trying to sell similar motorcycles…
Royal Enfield Sales FY2023
First Royal Enfield’s numbers for last year…
According to the official SIAM wholesales data that I have with me, Royal Enfield sold 715,218 units of its 350-500cc motorcycles and another 19,622 units of its 650s – adding up to total sales of whopping 734,840 units in all the twelve months of FY23. This corresponds to average sales of over 61,000 units per month.
| RE FY23 Sales | 7,34,840 units |
All of this is okay but what’s so special about these numbers? This we will know when we check how rivals stack up in this segment?
So let us first list all the rivals that Royal Enfield motorcycles have. I can think of the following…
- Honda’s CB350 range
- Jawa’s complete portfolio
- Yezdi’s list of models
- Benelli Imperiale 400
Let me list sales numbers of the above motorcycles for the financial year 2023 with the exception of Benelli since it does not share its figures.
| Honda CB350 range | 31,006 units |
| Jawa + Yezdi range | 40,190 units* |
*Since Classic Legends doesn’t share its wholesales, I have listed its actual retail sales for the last fiscal.
Yes, that is all! Okay okay, you want Dominar’s numbers as well. Though it is not a direct rival against Royal Enfield, here they are…
| Dominar 400 + 250 | 15,240 units |
RE Delivers Another HIT; Hunter Crosses 1 Lac Sales
Key pointers…
- So, if we add up all these numbers, the total market size of such motorcycles stood at roughly 8+ Lakh units last year.
- Royal Enfield ended up with a market share of, wait a minute, ~92 percent!!!
- The second place holder – Jawa/Yezdi – had a minuscule 5 percent market share, followed by Honda!
- Royal Enfield will most probably triumph all others by its single lowest selling 350cc model!
- RE sells more than the total number of sales of its rivals in one single month!
- RE is also the largest motorcycle seller above Rs 1.5 Lakh.
As you can see Royal Enfield sells truckloads of motorcycles and there is no other maker that is remotely close, despite being in the market for long. And it is not just motorcycles that the Chennai-based maker retails – it is the complete ecosystem that it has built over the years that is reaping them benefits.
This is also a high profit segment and now you know why every other manufacturer wants to have a pie from here. Right from Honda, to Mahindra (with its Jawa/Yezdi monikers) to Benelli and others are trying to sell retro classics. And now with Bajaj-Triumph partnership we may have another worthy rival but the question is – will anyone come close to the might of Royal Enfield?
