The luxury motorbike segment, including premium sports bikes, is set to grow faster in

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the coming months as both existing and new two-wheeler makers are chasing the growing numbers of affluent customers and the youth with feature-packed products.

Luxury bike-makers are very optimistic about the growth story. Amid concerns over economic slowdown, tightening of liquidity and rising inflation, the luxury bike segment is expected to sustain its growth momentum as the passion for super bikes is on the rise.

The appetite for luxury bikes has spread to smaller towns that have started generating good volumes. “We are seeing customers who just walk into dealerships, swipe their cards and ride out with bikes that are priced over a lakh of rupees,” a top official of a leading super bike-maker said on condition of anonymity.

Iconic Bullet motorcycle maker Royal Enfield has been getting dealership enquiries from young entrepreneurs from smaller cities and towns reflecting the trend of increasing interest among the youth for luxury bikes. Though the market has already been flooded with models having a range of new features, the luxury bike-makers are revving up their activities and plan to roll out more models in the coming months.

The cruiser bike category includes Royal Enfield’s Bullet and Bajaj Auto’s Avenger, while the ultra biking range (including sports category) consists of Bajaj Auto’s Kawasaki Ninja, Honda Motorcycles’ CB 1000R and CB250R, Suzuki’s Hayabusa and Yamaha’s YZF-R1, among others. In addition, high-end premium bikes of global brands Harley Davidson, Ducati and Hyosung have been receiving strong response.

“The market for premium bikes offers further scope for segmentation in terms of price points and performance characteristics. Also, the segment is expected to get crowded as new players like Harley Davidson, Ducati and Hyosung gear up to expand their presence in the super-premium segment,” said Subrata Ray, senior vice-president, corporate ratings, Icra. “The entry of these global brands augurs well for the leisure motorcycling business in India. In our opinion, this can only be good news for us as it expands the market,” Venki Padmanabhan, CEO of Royal Enfield, said.

The positioning of the premium segment bikes is anchored on performance attributes. The features of premium segment bikes are characterised by visual appeal, higher speeds, heady acceleration and superior ride, handling and braking.

After the launch of its CBR 250R in the price range of Rs 1.4 lakh to Rs 1.7 lakh, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter (HMSI) is also mulling launching more products in this category. It hopes to sell about 30,000 units of CBR 250R this fiscal. Royal Enfield, Bajaj Auto, Suzuki, HMSI and Mahindra also have multiple product launches in the pipeline.

“Overall, this segment is expected to remain the fastest growing over the medium term,” said Icra’s Ray. The 250cc and above category motorcycle market has seen 83 per cent growth at 13,783 units during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year compared with 7,547 units in the year-ago period, according to Siam.