Wellington -HD in India January 7, 2010 10:39 AM
“Honda cites 7.9 million two-wheeled sales in India for Jan-November of 2009, with December still to go”. And how many of those Hondas were $76,000? Honda also sells a lot of cars in America so does that mean Ferrari will sell a lot of cars in America? That is how wrong this comparison sounds.

“With more than a billion consumers”, Hey, there is 300,000,000 consumers in America and Harley can only sell a little over 220,000 and 85% of the billion Indian consumers you talk about can barley afford food and shelter let alone a $76K hog. “the promise of Indian prosperity has lured Ducati to the Asian country as well”. Ducati will sell bikes that the Indian people actually want and can afford. Remember Ducati started out making small commuter bikes for war torn Italy so a 250cc monster could easily be on the menu. In other words Ducati will do what the other successful manufacturers have done in countries like India and that is make bikes that make sense for that geographic demographic instead of peddling the same crap to every market like Harley does and waiting for them to buck up for their lack of manufacturing flexibility and innovation.

So why is Harley in India? Harley is desperately desperate. Domestic sales are down and global sales because of the economy and because their one size or one type of bike fits all isn’t working. Now Harley is going to give it a go in India because they have nothing left to lose.