Jawa Motorcycles are fully sold out till September just more than a month after launch as the classic Czech brand revived after 22 years seeks to challenge the domination of Royal Enfield.
Classic Legends Pvt. Ltd., the maker of Jawa Motorcyles that is 60 percent owned by the Mahindra Group and 20 percent each by Phi Capital and Rustomjee Group, has stopped taking online bookings, Chief Executive Officer Ashish Joshi told BloombergQuint in an interview. The motorcycle maker, which plans to start deliveries from March 2019, did not divulge details pertaining to the number of units that were booked.
Jawa, founded in 1929, now targets the leisure motorcycle enthusiasts in India, betting on rising incomes and awareness. It will run into an entrenched Royal Enfield, another classic brand revived by Siddhartha Lal of Eicher Motors Ltd. nearly two-and-a-half decades ago.
Jawa and Jawa Forty-Two have 300cc engines, a market dominated by Royal Enfield's bestseller Classic 350cc.
Joshi said there's no saturation yet. “The market is growing. This is a segment where people are upgrading from their regular motorcycles into this sort of a segment (350cc engine).”
Still, there's a long way to go. Royal Enfield on an average sold 67,587 units a month this year. Jawa will be contract-manufactured at the Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.'s two-wheeler plant in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. Classic Legends did not disclose the total production capacity of its plant.
Also the bikes, at Rs 1.55-1.65 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) cost more than the comparative Royal Enfield variant (Rs 1.47 lakh). The price tag partly stems from the fact that the engines are already compliant with Bharat Stage-VI emission standards, according to Joshi. He, however, said there's room for everybody in the market and Jawa will find its own space.
While the company has restricted its bookings online, the launch of new dealerships will help more people to buy Jawa, Joshi said.
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