117 year old iconic motorcycle brand Harley Davidson has shut down Indian operations, and quit manufacturing and sales operatons in India.
India is right now World’s biggest motorbike market, and the decision of Harley Davidson to quit India has surprised one and all.
We weeks back, we had reported about rumors that Harley Davidson will quit India, but that time, the company said that their operations will be scaled down, and some employees will be fired.
But they had denied that Indian operations will be shut down.
Why exactly Harley Davidson decided to quit world’s biggest motorbike market?
Here are the two critical reasons..
Harley Davidson Quits India Due To Low Sales
India is home to a massive market of two-wheelers. Around 2 crore bikes and scooters are sold in India every year.
But for Harley Davidson, it was a different story.
Sales of the company was sliding, and in the current fiscal year, they sold just 2470 bikes in India, down from 4708 units in 2016.
As a result, the manufacturing too dropped to just 4533 units, compared to 11753 units in 2016.
Low sales directly translates to heavy losses, and as a result the iconic motorbike brand had to quit India.
High Taxes Impacted Harley Davidson In India
No doubt bikes from Harley Davidson are costly, and the cheapest Harley in India costs around Rs 4.6 lakh.
But heavy taxes too took its toll on the company.
In India, anyone importing any bike needs to pay 50% duty, and this impacted Harley Davidson directly.
Although they manufactured 50-60% of the bikes sold in India, they were mandated to pay 28% GST, which is the highest slab.
On top of that, 3% additional cess.
Hence, on some of the best selling models, Harley Davidson had to charge as much as 81% as taxes, duties from the customer.
This left a giant hole in their business model, and continuing operation and manufacturing became unfeasible.
Around 100+ employees have been reportedly fired by the company in India.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.
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