- Wed Aug 03, 2016 1:18 pm
#61229
Scaleyback - unfortunately its not as simple as that. Eicher asked MotoGB to take over the franchise in 2013 having got rid of Watsonian first. It has to be said its not totally down to MotoGB - Royal Enfield give very little support to their franchises. The same has happened in the US - replace a badly performing importer with another badly performing importer and then don't give them any support. MotoGB import another six brands and as they're only selling 1,000 units across all models why should they bother? Sid Lal is talking the talk but he ain't walking the walk. I'm afraid the facts are the Indians a) don't understand the requirements of Western markets and b) don't give a shite anyway as they're on target to make and sell 400,000 units this year at home. And this is the nub of the problem. Ten years ago they shipped 20,000 units - three years ago it was just under 200,000 and now they're about to double production again. No company can achieve that much growth and recruit and train the huge increase in staff to keep up. What has gone out of the window is quality control - oh yes, the factory may well have ISO9001 but as long as the boxes are ticked that will do. IMHO we could well see the last of the Bullet and derivatives arriving on these shores when Euro 4 has to be implemented in the New Year (pdf available on request). papasmurf - unfortunately ceoemails doesn't give any contacts at Eicher either here or in Chenai. I had to do a bit of digging through other contacts to get through to someone a bit more senior than the chai wallah at Eicher.
