Royal Enfield Motors

Ownership
Today, Royal Enfield Motors is a privately owned automobile company with its headquarters located in Chennai, India.

The company was founded in 1955, when Royal Enfields (England) merged with Madras Motors to form Enfield India, for the specific purpose of manufacturing motor cycles.

Later in 1994, Eicher Group bought into Enfield India, which acquired the rights to the name Royal Enfield in 1995. Today, Eicher enjoys a global presence in over 40 countries worldwide.

The Eicher Group is today a leading Royal Enfield Motors company India, enjoying an annual gross revenue turnover of over $424 million for the year 2005 to 2006. The Group’s business interests include the local and international marketing of motorcycles, automotive gears and components, trucks and buses, as well as the design and development of the same.

Today Royal Enfield Motors, as owned by Eicher, has over 2,500 employees located in 4 manufacturing plants and 49 area offices throughout India. They also have over 300 vendors who supply the components for their various automotive parts and motorcycles.

World Presence And Environmental Compliance
Over the last seven years, the motorcycles manufactured by Royal Enfield Motors (Eicher) have been gaining in popularity throughout the world. In over twenty countries from the US and Canada in North America, to the UK, Germany and other European Union countries; to the Far East in Australia and Japan, Royal Enfield motorcycles have pride of place worldwide.

In the UK, where the motorcycle was first manufactured, this now Indian produced motorcycle has been placed as one of the top ten selling brands in the 125-500 cc motorcycle categories.

The company has an export only motorcycle, the 2006, 500 cc Bullet, which has a lean burn to meet the increasingly stringent emission regulations of the North American and European markets. Unfortunately, this model was short lived in the European market as the introduction of even more stringent emission regulations was introduced. However, not to be denied such a lucrative market, Royal Enfield introduced a new motorcycle engine in the autumn of 2007.

As a subsidiary of Eicher, Royal Enfield Motors have continued to make the timeless classical motorcycle that has changed little over the last 100 years. However, motorcyclists need to be aware that there are two different models of this classic motorcycle. The classic original model with the four speed gear box and right food starter and the new lean-burn engine, developed specifically to meet environmental emission regulations.