Royal Enfield hires ex-Ducati veteran Mario Alvisi to steer EV business

Royal Enfield has hired Mario Alvisi as a Chief Growth officer for its Electric Vehicle business as it builds a core senior leadership team to carve a space for itself in the zero-emission vehicle space.

Having formed a dedicated EV unit, the company has been bringing key personnel to prepare the roadmap for the future. This is the second key appointment after the hiring of Umesh Krishnappa, the CTO who is working on a dedicated electric vehicle portfolio for the company.

Alvisi will be in charge the of EV business, branding, go-to-market and product strategy. He will report into the CEO, B Govindarajan.

Siddhartha Lal, MD of Eicher Motors said, "Mario has got an amazing track record - so we all will be working together and he will oversee the commercial side of the business. It is a new growth segment for us and he will be a dedicated person for us to build the EV business."

He will be working very closely with Mark Wells, who is the Chief of Design at Royal Enfield – ensuring that there is a strong differentiation with the petrol engine portfolio.

Alvisi is a Ducati veteran with decades of experience in the automotive industry having worked with well-known brands like Abarth, Alfa Romeo. He joined Royal Enfield from E-foil company MHL customs as a Chief Commercial Officer.

He took charge in July and he will be based out of Chennai.

Royal Enfield has been steadily building its team and portfolio of products that are meant to be global in nature and hence the company is bringing in the global talent, say people in the know.

Sources say, Royal Enfield is likely to invest over Rs 1,500 crore on its EV business and has already acquired an additional land in Cheyyar to ready its manufacturing footprint for future. 

While the company was non-committal on specific investments, B Govindarajan said, Eicher Motors has applied for PLI scheme which is an investment of Rs 2000 crore for both Royal Enfield and the commercial vehicle business.

The first EV from Royal Enfield is scheduled for 2025 and already prototypes of EVs, which the company claims to be differentiated, have been tested.