Harley Davidson vrooms into smaller cities

​New Delhi: American iconic bike maker Harley-Davidson is riding on a wave of increasing popularity in smaller towns in India as it experiences a faster rate of growth in these places compared with metros.

The company, which has been hard-selling its Harley-Davidson riding experience, is now looking to tap India’s Northeast as part of its strategy to have presence across the country.

“Like in any other global market, our metro sales are higher in terms of volume, but we are experiencing a much faster growth rate in smaller towns in India,” said Harley-Davidson India Managing Director Vikram Pawah.

The company had posted sales of 2,170 units in April-September this fiscal, as against 2,176 units in the same period last year. He said the company had been placing equal emphasis on the smaller cities as much as the metros while expanding the Harley-Davidson sales network.

“Our latest showroom is in Guwahati, again another smaller city. It will serve as the hub to cater to the entire Northeast region, where we believe there is a cultural sync with Harley riding experience,” Pawah said. The last six new Harley-Davidson showrooms in Indian had been in such places, he said.

Apart from showrooms in metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, the company has now showrooms in smaller cities such as Lucknow, Nagpur, Surat, Indore, Coimbatore and Ludhiana.

Pawah said demand for Harley-Davidson bikes from smaller cities was irrespective of prices as “it is more about lifestyle experience and expression of self”.

Harley-Davidson sells 13 bike models in India that are priced in the range of Rs 4.69 lakh (for the entry level Street 750 model) to Rs 49.32 lakh (for the imported CVO Limited).