This is good news for Harley lovers. As we had reported before, the cult bike maker has confirmed that it will start assembling their cruisers in India. This will will further help the firm to reduce the price of the models which will be put together here. Currently the Harley-Davidson bikes are priced between Rs 7 lakh to Rs 35 lakh and once the CKD (complete knock-down) facility kicks-off, the prices of select bike models could be slashed by around 25 per cent!
“We are delighted to announce the Company’s plans to establish assembly operations in India,” said Harley-Davidson Motor Company President and Chief Operating Officer Matthew S. Levatich. “CKD assembly operations are a natural next step for Harley-Davidson as we increase our ability to meet the needs of India’s consumers.” Levatich said, “This investment will allow Harley-Davidson to improve our market responsiveness and production flexibility while reducing the tariff burden, which we expect will drive growth over time by making our bikes more accessible to India’s consumers. Given the strong response we have received in the initial months of retail operations, we believe this is the right investment for this important market.”
To date, Harley-Davidson India has been importing completely assembled motorcycles from the Company’s U.S. final assembly plants. Once the CKD assembly facility in Haryana is operational, Harley-Davidson India will import CKD kits for select models, consisting of components produced by Harley-Davidson’s U.S. plants in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Missouri and by the company’s suppliers. Employees at the Haryana facility will then assemble the components into finished motorcycles. Other models will continue to be imported as completely built motorcycles for now.
The CKD assembly facility should be operational in the first half of 2011. India will be the second country in which Harley-Davidson has CKD assembly operations outside the U.S., after Brazil where the Company began assembly operations in 1999.
Source
0 comments :
Post a Comment