In what could be a first-of-its-kind move, an American motorcycle brand will manufacture motorcycles in India and export to its ‘home’ market – the USA.

“We plan to export to the USA in a year,” Juan Villegas, global director – business development, UM Motorcycles, told Autocar Professional today on a visit to Mumbai. By then, the Miami- headquartered UM Motorcycles hopes to build a customer base of around 30,000 in India through its joint venture with Lohia Auto. In an update about the company, Rajeev Mishra, director, UM India, says that 50 dealers in 32 cities have been appointed and the order book currently stands at over 4,000 motorcycles.

The 279.5cc Renegade Commando and Renegade Sports, the first set of models were scheduled to go on sale earlier but have got delayed due to some corrections to improve the quality level and modifications based on consumer feedback. “We had received a wish-list of over 130 points from consumers. The joint venture’s plant in Kashipur, Uttarakhand, has an annual production capacity of 50,000 units. Localisation level of the motorcycles stands at around 65 percent, which could go up to 80 percent by March 2017 if things go as planned. UM Motorcycles’ competitive pricing of Rs 149,000 has also attracted customers.

With export operations kicking off in a year or so, UM Motorcycles expects to run out of production capacity at the Kashipur plant by mid-2018. It is considering setting up a second production facility in South-West India. “We would prefer to set up a second production base in that region instead of adding capacity in Kashipur because the Southern and Western regions contribute to 60 percent of the market,” says Rajeev. UM Motorcycles plans to launch a new product every six months. “And it will not be a new colour or graphics,” Rajeev says.

UM Motorcycles sees India becoming its “most important” foreign base, both in terms of market and engineering, in a few years from now. Not surprising then that it has an array of products for India. But successfully establishing the UM brand in the market and carving out space in a market dominated by a domestic brand will be key to realise its plans.

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