American motorcycle manufacturer, Harley-Davidson, announced that they will leave India after years of an attempt to break into the market, CNN on Friday.
India is one of the major motorcycle markets in the world which attracted the top bike maker to operate for almost a decade. Earlier on June 22, CNN reported that the Indian government spared Harley-Davidson bikes from imposing retaliatory tariffs.
However, the company announced on Thursday that they will close down the “Bawal factory” in northern India. In addition, the Delhi sales office in Gurgaon will be reduced in size.
“A total rewire is necessary to make Harley-Davidson a high-performance company.”
– CEO Jochen Zeitz
Currently, India is the largest global motorcycle manufacturer. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, last year around 17 million two-wheelers were sold in India.
Bikes and motorcycles are the most popular means of transportation in India beating even Car users.
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Why Harley-Davidson Is Closing Down in India
Harley-Davidson entered the Indian motorcycle market in 2010. At the time, India was the 2nd fastest growing bike market in the world just behind China.
But due to the higher import duties and sales taxes doing business was difficult in India. U.S President Donald Trump made repeated criticism as a result of the situation. Hence, the Indian Commerce Ministry kept the bike company out from the tariff list which included 29 goods on the American products in recent times.
Harley-Davidson, on the other hand, wants to explore the American, European, and other Asia-Pacific countries instead of India, according to the report.
CEO Jochen Zeitz said, “A total rewire is necessary to make Harley-Davidson a high-performance company.”
The motorcycle manufacturer was already having difficult times after the Coronavirus pandemic. They want to improve the sales performance and started talking about a possible distribution deal with Hero MotoCorp in India.
The news, however, will be a bad one for the Prime Minister of India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to keep foreign investors in India for years.
Harley-Davidson, however, had no official statement on the event.
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