BENGALURU: Two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday raised prices of the new Indian Harley-Davidson motorcycle by 10,500 rupees ($127.45) days after the Harley chief executive said pre-orders of the new model exceeded the company’s expectations.
The Harley-Davidson X440 will be priced at 239,500 rupees ($2,905.06) and above, with the hike applicable for all its variants, Hero said in a statement. Deliveries are expected to begin by October.
Harley partnered with Hero, the world’s largest motorcycle maker, to develop and sell a range of its own branded bikes in India, starting with the X440 after exiting and shuttering most of its dealer network in 2020 in the country.
Harley entered the space with its British rival Triumph last month and unveiled their cheapest models in India, the largest motorcycle market by sales, to tap into higher spending in premium segments across categories.
Triumph, which has partnered with Bajaj Auto in its India venture, had last month said that the starting price of its Speed 400 motorcycle would be 223,000 rupees for its first 10,000 customers and then raised to 233,000 rupees.
Triumph had crossed more than 14,000 in bookings last month, while Hero or Harley did not disclose their booking numbers.
“We’ve been extremely pleased with the reception that the X440 has received since launch, with pre-orders exceeding initial expectations from launch,” Harley-Davidson CEO Jochen Zeitz had said on an earnings call last week.
Hero shares were down as much as 2.6% in morning trade on Wednesday, while the U.S.-listed Harley-Davidson shares closed 0.2% lower on Tuesday.
($1 = 82.4425 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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