Indian Motorcycle In India
Indian Motorcycle will not follow Harley’s example and leave India. In fact, it plans to expand. In a recent Autocar India article it was reported that the company could dramatically expand its footprint in the country.
Polaris—the parent company of Indian Motorcycle—has big plans for its motorcycle company and the prosperous Indian market. The company will likely produce small-displacement motorcycles better suited for the Indian market as well as utilize India as its hub for all of its Asian markets.
According to Autocar, there’s no issue with the BS6 emissions compliance either. Indian Motorcycle has an updated, BS6-compliant lineup that it will roll out in the country soon. This will help ensure the business can continue to sell motorcycles there. It’s also that very thing (emissions standards) that drove Harley-Davidson to leave the Indian market, although Harley could be working on a deal to keep that from happening.
It will be interesting to see what Indian Motorcycle does in the near future. I have a hunch that the business will be able to pick up the slack that Harley has left and appeal to a whole new group of buyers in the country. While Indian is a lot smaller than Harley, business is going well, and Polaris keeps making the right moves.
Super smart move. This gets them around a ton of taxes in SE Asia, which represents a much wider rider base than the west could ever dream of. Anything built in US or Europe and imported is like 3X the price here in Thailand and anything built in Asia is about the same as you’d pay new in the US.
Indian will murder Harley in this region with this decision once they get their dealer base up (I believe only one in Thailand at the moment).
Super smart move? Time will tell!