[Joel-in-dallas]

Is it me or has the UCE changed the company for the better. It seems to me the resurgence in sales is directly as a result of the UCE being more powerful and more reliable. To me it seems like the UCE engine is in some ways more important to Royal Enfield than the Evolution was to Harley Davidson.

I don't want to start a flame war, but it seems like this was needed well before it was done.

[ace.cafe]

In a way it did, because if they hadn't made the UCE engine, they could not have passed Euro3 emissions requirements, and that would have ended the motorcycle part of the company, at least. It was important to have an engine which could pass the worldwide emission requirements.

[barenekd]

I don't know that it saved the company as they sell 90%+ of their bikes in India and they don't require all the smog stuff.
However it certainly kept the export business going, as small as it is, it's certainly going to grow and give them a larger world market. When the 750 twin comes out that should show a big spike in the exports. They are looking for a jump when the Cafe racer arrives, but still at this point we are talking about increases in the 100s. The world market for the bike is maybe 3000 units per annum now. the UCEs did spike a bit in the US, especially when CA got their bikes initially, but that has evened out, too.
Bare

[no bs]

the uce has sure saved ME (a lot of cash per mpg).

[Ducati Scotty]

As Bare said, the vast majority of their sales are in India and everyone there knows how to fix that bike so they can all run forever.  I think they are looking to expand their export sales and be a little cleaner even in India.  The air quality in some of their large cities is quite poor.  Though they run an open loop EFI there and no catalytic converter the EFI still runs cleaner than the old carb.

Scott

[The_Rigger]

As Bare said, the vast majority of their sales are in India and everyone there knows how to fix that bike so they can all run forever.

I thought I read somewhere that they're still selling upwards of 70,000 motorcycles a year... Is that true?  If so, they must be moving 'em out somewhere...

[Arizoni]

Most of them are sold in India where there is a waiting period of over 6 months between the time you pay your money and you get your motorcycle.

The demand is so great the dealers treat their customers like crap and the people just keep on coming.

Royal Enfield's new factory was supposed to open not too long ago but I haven't heard much about it.  When it does they should be producing well over 100,000 new RE's a year.

[Ducati Scotty]

And 70,000 bikes a year almost qualifies as a 'boutique' manufacturer in India.  They've got plenty of people who need transportation and some companies make and sell many times that a year.

Scott

[young gun]

Well when you have 1.27 billion potential customers who cares about the international market, I know I wouldn't

I wonder how many Bullets have been made over the last 50 years?

[BRADEY]

It is not just the UCE that saved the company, but the vision of a 30 year old
business graduate (and owner of the brand), who was passionate about the brand,
that did the trick. Before Siddharth Lal took over the reigns of RE India, the company
was running into losses. He immediately brought in, industry's best known names, into
the company and improved over the existing quality. Then RE came out with a flurry of
models Electra, Machismo, Thunderbird etc. and by doing away with the points ignition,
for the first time in 50 years, and working simultaneously on newer engines, such as AVL
and UCE.

Currently all its models whether sold in India or elsewhere run on UCE platform. And for people
who may not be aware, India has the most strict norms for pollution, as least when the vehicles
roll out of the factory !! And all heritage models, still share the roads with the new ones, simply
because its a heritage model, and a Bullet at that !!

[Ice]

+ 10 to what Brady said.



 The company was saved pre UCE but the unit lump ensured the future and made expansion happen.

Long live the UCE.

[JVS]

Long live the UCE Enfield.

  

[REpozer]

Im pretty sure the AVL engine and Classic frames painted in B.R. Green saved REM

[no bs]

imho i think  the brand just wanted to get into the global market. did import tariffs help HD and the evo way back when? i never wanted to purchase a HD, but i believe they had governmental support to stay afloat. remember 700cc ujp engines? i don't think RE india was going out of business without our enthusiastic stateside support. as far as i can tell, we seem to be in on the bottom floor of a resurgence of simplicity in our mode of 2-wheel transport.

[GSS]

RE almost got crushed by the arrival of the little Indo-Japanese bikes over the past 20 years.  These were much more reliable and cheaper than the iron barrels.  Without these improvements and UCE, it was pretty much extinction for this brand.  Drive around Delhi nowadays and you will rarely see more than 3-4 REs during the day amongst the sea of thousands of lookalike 150cc black plastic bikes. Chennai isn't much better either....maybe 1% of all bike sightings if you are lucky.

Anyway, things are looking great with the Cafe racer.........and hopefully a UCE Interceptor on the way soon?

GSS