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Royal Enfield unveils new Thunderbird

CHENNAI: Royal Enfield, a division of Eicher Motors, unveiled Thunderbird twinspark, a 350 cc 4-stroke motorcycle.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Siddhartha Lal, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said “We have been working on twinspark technology for our type of motorcycle architecture since the late ’90s and have found it suitable for mass production with our new engine platform.

The new Thunderbird incorporates hydraulic tappets and a new lean-burn combustion technology with two spark plugs.”

Mr. Lal said the new Thunderbird twinspark motorcycle would cater mainly to the domestic market. The vehicle is priced at Rs. 1,03,200 on road. For the overseas market, the company unveiled a 500cc Royal Enfield Electra motorcycle embedded with fuel injection technology.

R. L. Ravichandran, Chief Executive Officer, said with the launch of Thunderbird twinspark 350cc, the company was absolutely primed for the entry of the unit construction engine (UCE) in the domestic market. (The traditional Royal Enfield engine is distinguished by an external clutch and gearbox while in the UCE, both these elements are integrated within a common cranckcase space.) By 2010, India would have other such twinspark models including the Machismo, Electra and the Bullet 350. Out of the four models planned for launch in the next two years, two models would be for the international market and two for the domestic market.

He said the company was planning to expand the production capacity at its Thiruvottiyur plant to 60,000 units in the next two years from the existing 40,000 units a year at a cost of Rs. 25 crore.

The company sold around 38,538 vehicles, including 350cc and 500cc motorcycles, last year. It has set a target of selling 45,000 vehicles this year.

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