Hi all, welcome to Eicher Motors Limited post Q4 FY24 results conference call. We have with us the senior management of Eicher Motors, represented by Mr. Siddhartha Lal, MD and CEO, Mr. Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO of VECV, Mr. B. Govindarajan, CEO of Royal Enfield, Mrs. Vidhya Srinivasan, CFO Eicher Motors Limited. Thanks again to the management for giving us the opportunity to host the call. Without wasting any time, over to the senior management for their initial comments.
Thank you, Basudeb and ICICI for hosting this for us. Hello everyone, and welcome to the earnings call for Eicher Motors Limited for the quarter-ended quarter and year-ended March 31st, 2024. We've had an absolutely stellar year at Eicher Motors with consistent and solid growth through the year, and we've grown from strength to strength each quarter and making new milestones in business and financial performance. I'm going to begin with our update on Royal Enfield. Again, an absolutely fantastic year with where we've maintained our lead and our dominance in the premium motorcycle segment and have closed the year with 912,000 cycles approximately. That's the best performance we've ever had in India. had some absolute category-defining launches this year.
We introduced the Himalayan on our new engine platform, the Sherpa 450, and we've seen absolutely tremendous response from consumers in India and around the world, and from critics and media, and you know, so and in sales as well. So on the product development and manufacturing and quality front, we've continued to push the boundaries and are now absolutely amongst the best in the world, which is evident from the fact that, you know, we've got the world's best cruiser, and possibly the world's best adventure touring motorcycle also based on all the inputs and all the awards we've got, so which is the Super Meteor 650 and the new Himalayan.
And of course, we also, the Himalayan also won the Indian Motorcycle of the Year in 2024, which is the most important award because it involves the largest group and a very large group of motorcycle journalists who come up with this. It's a single award. And this is our fourth Indian Motorcycle of the Year in the last year, so we dominated that single award that's given to the best motorcycle of the year. We also made great strides in our EV journey in the last year, and we have a very solid not only single product but a range thought process. We have really built our development capabilities, our technology, our technical teams, and now even our commercial teams are really being built up. And we're working on a very solid differentiated portfolio and lineup for EV, which will come in the right time, in due time.
Coming to VECV, our joint venture with Volvo for commercial vehicles, we've had our highest-ever sales for the Eicher Truck and Bus division, for Volvo trucks, for VE Powert rains, where we sell engines to Volvo Group around the world. In our components business and our power solutions business, these are all verticals of VE Commercial Vehicles. On the EV front at VECV, we have delivered over 230 electric buses so far and 75 EV trucks are Eicher Pro 2055. So we are making strong progress on the EV front, and deliveries and tracking how the vehicles are going, which is very good. We've also showcased a new electric small commercial vehicle at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo earlier this year. We are entering into the small commercial vehicle segment, which is in the 2-3.5 tons.
And the first vehicle in that, SCV, for Eicher will be an electric vehicle. So yeah, the whole category is extremely new for VECV, and so is the EV first type of program. But this is a category where Eicher brand has a lot of salience, a lot of brand equity because of our strength in light and medium duty as well. So we're very hopeful that we'll make a big impact in this very large market of small commercial vehicles. We've also made huge progress in our sustainability journey. We've our most ambitious social mission project, which is the Himalayan Hub, went live, where we have in Theog in Himachal. So we have fellowships. We have hub for circularity, for experimentation, for, let's say, responsible travel.
These are the kind of areas that we're looking at to develop over the years, for sustainable travel and sustainability in the Himalayas. We also had another very important project called the Himalayan Knot, which is about strengthening indigenous heritage textiles in the Himalayas and, along with the Himalayan artisans and communities, bringing closer to urban designers and, and urban markets and rider community. So that's gone on really well. We also concluded the second edition of the Great Himalayan Exploration in partnership with UNESCO. So which is the concept there is to document and conserve the intangible cultural heritage. In this case, we are doing it in the eight states of the Eastern Himalayas, where we've documented this year 45 different intangible cultural heritage elements, for posterity, for future, for reference, for, support. So it's a very exciting project.
Well, now coming to the financials, we've had another record-breaking performance. So we have a lot of best-evers coming up in revenue and EBITDA at. So the consolidated financials for Eicher Motors Limited for fourth quarter and for the full year, we've had our highest-ever revenue for eight quarters in a row now, and, resulting in our highest-ever annual revenue in EML. So for Q4, revenue for EML stood at INR 4,256 crores, up 12% from last year. For the full year, EML revenue stood at INR 16,536 crores, up 14.5%.
And if you take the INR 16,536 crores for EML consolidated and then you add VECV, which is not part of the, first figure, and VECV is INR 21,459 crores. So the combined revenue on both RE and VECV, so if you look at the group level, is, nearly INR 8,000 crores. So that's of $4.5 billion, combined revenue last year.
EBITDA profits have grown, year on year and sequentially, and we registered a highest-ever PAT and EBITDA for the quarter as well. The EBITDA is INR 729 crores, up 21% for the quarter. And for the year, it's INR 4,327 crores, up 26%. So solid growth on EBITDA both for the quarter and for the year. The EBITDA margin is at 26.5% for the quarter. That's two percentage points higher than last year. And 26.2% for the full year, which is against 23.8%. So it's substantially higher than the previous year now. Our PAT is at INR 1,070 crores, up 18%. And for the year, we've just gone ahead of the 4,000 crore mark, up 36%. So solid number overall, as far as we're concerned, from EML.
Now I hand over to Govindarajan, CEO of Royal Enfield, to give you a little bit more insight and detail on the Royal Enfield business performance. Thank you.
Thank you, Siddhartha. Hello everyone. Good afternoon. Thanks for joining on a Saturday. All of us at Royal Enfield are super proud of the several milestones we have achieved in the year 2023/24. Not only have we seen exceptional performance for Q4, we have also sustained a strong growth momentum throughout the year in all quarters despite a lot of actions which you would have seen in the middleweight segment. During this quarter, we sold 227,925 motorcycles, which is up by 6.2% on a weight-by-weight basis. For the financial year, as Siddhartha mentioned, we sold about 912,000 motorcycles, which is compared to last year, which was only about 834,700 motorcycles. This is our highest-ever volumes in the country in India. With this, we have surpassed our pre-COVID level and have maintained a robust growth momentum with about 30% market share in more than 125cc category.
And our motorcycle market share is almost about 7.2%, on an overall basis. In the international markets, we recorded a sale of 77,209 units, despite weak macro backdrops, which you all know. Our retail sales in the international markets remained on a steady growth track across the regions in this year FY 2024. As a result, we have maintained our market share in the middleweight segment across the market outside India too. During this year, we forayed into some new countries like Turkey, which has a strong market relation with motorcycling. On manufacturing, just to add, we have produced 9.2 million motorcycles this year, which is once again the highest-ever production, with high-quality finished motorcycles for the globe. Our plants are continuing to create new benchmarking efficiencies, automations, and in the manufacturing excellence. Our Oragadam plant at Chennai was awarded the Future Ready Factory by Frost & Sullivan.
They also received the Excellence in Operations and Smart Factory of the year, in 2023. We achieved our highest-ever revenue for non-motorcycle business driven by our expanding service reach, robust growth in accessories, and widening range of apparels, and adding more and more STUs in the accessories business. Throughout the year, we steadily elevated pure motorcycling experiences for our customers with the introduction of programs such as Assured Buyback, Reown, and Tours and Rentals, which are all getting traction now. Consumer response to these programs has been very, very encouraging to us, and we will continue to enhance these initiatives. This year, we also introduced two connected motorcycle systems, with advanced telematics and navigation capabilities on our motorcycles, the Tripper Dash on our all-new Himalayan Sherpa platform motorcycle, and the Wingman, the rider-centered connected motorcycles, in the Super Meteor to start with.
Motoverse this year boasted the spirit of motorcycling in every sense of the word. Over three action-packed days of music, motorcycling, art, culture, the 13th edition witnessed the participation of more than 15,000 attendees from across the globe. During that time, we also unveiled the Shotgun 650, an unknown surprise of Himalayan, which all are hit in the market very well. Under the sustainability initiative on the social mission, which Siddhartha mentioned about what we are doing at the Himalayas, at a green operation business level, I would like to share with you, we have achieved zero liquid discharge in all our operations and all our plants, and our warehouses are all net water positive, with an index of almost 3.23 in Oragadam and 2.02 in Vallam Vadagal. We have been constantly working on improving the renewable energy usage.
During this year, further we enhanced that, and we have up to another 5% of total consumption onto the renewable energy. We were looking at constantly our reduction of carbon emissions. This year, we have took a target of reduction by 80% compared to last year, and it has been completely on track. On the product end-of-life vehicle study, we wanted to do that to understand the recyclability, recoverability, and reusability. We started off with our Twins platform, and now we are doing it for the rest of the products also. Happy to share with you that the reusability of the parts in our motorcycle is more than 98%, and the recoverable is also equally almost the same. We are working on complete reusability and recoverability parts we used in the motorcycle.
With successful launches last year, we are well on our way to ride ahead on our strategic goals, with several more products which are lined up. We are geared up to continue this growth journey in India and across the globe. In conclusion, we had a very great year and have an even better one planned in the coming year. Now I will hand it over to Vinod Aggarwal to take you through the VECV presentation. Over to you.
Thank you, Govind. Very good afternoon to all of you. As Siddharth mentioned, financial 2024 has been a record year for us on all fronts. Let me begin with the financial performance for the quarter as well as for the year. We had, overall quarter four sales were 25,732 units. And of course, for the full year, we had 85,560 units as against last full year of 79,623 units. So with a growth of 7.5% for the full year. If you look at the industry, industry had grown by 4%. So therefore, since we have done better than the industry, we have improved in market shares in all our most of our segments. As far as the revenues are concerned, our revenues rose to INR 6,275 crores in quarter four.
Of course, for the full year, our revenues stand at now INR 21,868 crores over last year full year revenue of INR 18,952 crores with a full year growth of 15.4%. As far as the EBITDA margin is concerned, we had an EBITDA margin of INR 486 crores for the quarter. For the full year, we had the EBITDA margins of INR 1,715 crores as against last year full EBITDA margins of INR 1,387 crores with a growth of 23.6%. EBITDA margin for the quarter were 7.85% and 8% for full year as against 7.5% for financial year 2023. Profit after tax was INR 242 crores for quarter four and INR 823 crores for financial year 2024, which is a growth of 42% from INR 579 crores in the previous year, financial year 2023.
We achieved highest-ever Q4 sales for Eicher Heavy Duty Trucks at 6,476 for Eicher brand and 500+ for the Volvo brand. For the full year, we have heavy duty trucks sold 23,660 as against last year of 20,675 units. With a growth of 14.4% as against the industry growth of 4% in heavy duty trucks. With this, 23,660 units, our market share in heavy duty trucks has gone up to 9.2%, for the full year. Of course, if you look at the Q4 9% market share, Q4 market share for heavy duty trucks was close to 10%. Which indicates that we are well on our journey to become bigger and bigger player in the heavy duty truck market.
As far as the light and medium duty trucks are concerned, we sold 11,033 units in the quarter, achieving again our highest-ever market share of 35.8% in the light and medium duty trucks for quarter four. For full year, we sold 38,712 light and medium duty trucks as against last full year of 37,318 units with a growth of 3.7%. As against this, the market had dropped by 5.9%. So based on that, our market share in light and medium duty trucks also, it improved to 34.7%. And, of course, in almost four months in the full year, we were the market leaders in light and medium duty trucks, which is again a very good development. As far as the bus segment is concerned, we sold 6,090 units in quarter four. And, of course, these were our highest-ever sales in the buses.
And for the full year, we have sold 17,620 units of buses as against 15,077 in the previous year with a growth of 16%+. And, of course, we continue to do very well as far as the parts business is concerned, with the overall sale of INR 574 crores in quarter four with a growth of more than 24%. And of course, apart from that, our VE Powert rains, which is our Euro 6 engine where we export these engines to Volvo Group, that unit is also doing very well. We delivered 15,717 units in quarter four, which again are the highest-ever. And of course, we achieved quite a few awards last year. And of course, we also were ranked number one in dealer satisfaction survey, consistently for three years in a row.
We also won customer satisfaction awards for heavy-duty trucks as number one and in light- and medium-duty trucks also as number one in the customer satisfaction survey, which was conducted by GfK, which is again a very, very credible achievement. We were also given CV Maker of the Year recognition at 2023 Apollo Tyres CV Awards. We also won six other product-related awards, again acknowledging our efficient range of trucks and buses. Of course, as we all know, over five years ago, VECV became the first CV manufacturer to offer connected telematics as a standard. Over these years, we have built on this connected ecosystem to deliver artificial intelligence and machine learning-based remote and predictive diagnostics to customers, thereby delivering uptime to them.
On the sustainability front, as you as you are aware that we have also, we are one of the strong players in the CNG, fuel-based trucks. We are also we have also entered LNG fuel-based trucks, in both Volvo brand as well as Eicher brand. We are working, on H2-ICE technology. We are working on hydrogen fuel cells. So therefore, we are working on all the future alternate fuel technologies. And, all our existing diesel vehicles, they comply with all the strict current BS6 OBD2 standards. And then, of course, we are committed to increase the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency at our plants and operations. We have also implemented water-saving measures and are aiming to reduce water usage per vehicle produced by 5% annually. I now hand over back to Siddhartha for any last remarks.
Yeah, thank you very much, Govind, and thank you very much, Vinod. It's been an absolutely fantastic year for EML, for VECV. And as we step into this year, which we're already in, we are really confident that we'll continue to grow. And we have a lot of interesting things planned ahead. Royal Enfield's performance and success last year was particularly special as we achieved all of that in the light of a huge, let's say, push of new competition, new wave of competition. And it's our dedication to the motorcycling and to premium motorcycling. It's our extreme focus. It's our, of course, we believe our products are a step ahead. And we've always, you know, even though the product cycle is 4-5 years in terms of conceptualizing to being on the road, we've always been a step ahead of competition.
Even when new competition has come in, we've already anticipated our consumer demand more than competition and been ahead of the curve. But then it's well beyond that. I think for us, as a lot of you know, that it's the entire holistic consumer experience. That's what we're obsessed about at Royal Enfield. That's what we think about daily, more than competition, more than investors, more than anything else. We think of our consumers. And we ourselves, Govindarajan and myself, we're on the motorcycles, riding, understanding future bikes, competition bikes, EV bikes. And our whole team, we're absolutely obsessed. And we're focused on that consumer experience, on understanding them better, on understanding their pains, understanding their joys, understanding what will motivate them because we do it ourselves. And that's the difference. It's a holistic, really, really detailed thought-through experience that we provide our consumers.
We continue to remain super focused on doing just that. So that's just an update from all three of us. Thank you very much for listening. Now we're open for some questions.
Thanks, sir, for Q&A session, requesting participants to raise their hands and also requesting each to limit their questions to two per participant. So, first question is from Gunjan Prithyani, requesting you to unmute.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my questions. If my first question is on the Royal Enfield side, if you can share a little bit more in terms of what are we seeing on, you know, on the demand side. April was certainly quite a strong month where, you know, there was an element of seasonality as well. But if you can share, you know, how should we think about the demand growth or outlook for fiscal 2025? And also, you know, just clubbing Himalayan along with that, that launch happened towards, you know, to you know, the ramp-up had to happen in quarter four. So now do we have a sense of what's the steady run rate for Himalayan 450cc for the domestic market?
I mean, then, about the overall market, I know I'm sure you guys are following it more than us and getting the data in different form. What we can say is the two-wheeler market is poised for a growth, and especially the middleweight. We anticipate the middleweight growth will be in double digits. As we always say, that we should be ahead of the curve with all the new products which we launched last year and the new products which are going to come in this year. We feel that there is enough room for us to grow. In fact, the premiumization as a theme is continuing in India. That's a good sign for all of us. The motorcycle industry, I think, is slowly coming back to the pre-COVID level.
We are seeing that month-on-month, which is slowly gaining momentum. It'll actually help us with all our preparedness which we have done over the period of time. As far as the Himalayan is concerned, you know, we launched, and, it has been a super hit for us. And happy to share with you just beyond the expectation of the numbers which we are talking about. You know, Gunjan, that we don't give exact numbers. But, having said, we are we are currently clocking as good as 200+ motorcycles a day. So that's the rate. But we are also preparing ourselves for the higher numbers because we see there is a good potential for us across the globe. As of now, only in few international markets we've opened it. And we are slowly opening to the rest of the market.
We see that motorcycle also will give us quite a growth in coming years.
200+ motorcycle a day, and we are not yet seeing that in terms of dispatches. Is that a supply ramp-up which is more gradual here?
It is. It's as of now, there is also seasonality in the international market. So we have to do that to the international markets also. So we are currently, what we are doing is, depending upon the FIFO level, we are trying to match to the consumers of domestic market and also to the international markets. But we are working on increasing the supply situation, which you will see in time to come, the improvements.
Okay. And the second question on the, you know, on the platform, you know, that, sort of picture that you put in the presentation, you know, there are a fair bit of white spaces. That's clearly evident across platforms, right? And I know you will not talk about which product, which launch. But in terms of next, you know, if you were to think about next 12, 18 months or two years, what are the key white spaces in the respective platforms that you think, you know, are priority areas to address, you know, across platforms? You know, there is only one bike on 450cc. There's only one on the J platform. So a little bit color on how we should think about bridging of these white spaces over the next two years.
Quite a long answer to be given, Gunjan, but still, I'll, I'll try to be very short slightly. You know, we have currently three platforms. We have our super refined J platform. Then we have our 450cc platform, which is the Sherpa platform, and the 650cc platform. You know, we also had that 411 platform. And in some of the products, we are continuing there. In all these platforms, you know, as we always say, we are a focused company. We don't do too many things. But the platforms are grouped to bring out different motorcycles which address the different set of and segment of consumers, which we can give a differentiated experience. That's why on the J platform, you can see we have Bullet. We have Classic. We have Hunter. We have Meteor. And all of them have their own space.
The consumer sets and the experiences are very different to the people. Similarly, on that 450cc platform, as of now, we have come out with the Himalayan. We will come out very soon. You will see a fantastic motorcycle, from the same platform. And on the 650cc platform, we have our Continental GT, Interceptor, Shotgun, and the Super Meteor 650. All are very different motorcycles, and which gives a differentiated experience. So to that extent, all the platform changes and the improvements which we have done, there is we have to give some space for that also to grow. You know, 411cc platform, when we launched, awesome there. But over the period of time, we created a category like that for all these platforms and the products which we are bringing in.
We have to give that space to actually grow because consumers also have to get accepted to that. We know that these are all outstanding products which will grow in the market over a period of time. We constantly look at, as Siddhartha was mentioning, we ride motorcycles. We are motorcyclists first. When we ride, when we see there is a possibility for us to give you a different kind of a motorcycle in the same platform, we always keep thinking about it. But that's all thought through at the platform development stage itself. We don't do afterthought discussions of all these things. So around the platform, as we presented to you people, we have a lot of new products which are already lined up, which will start coming one by one.
Okay, got it. I'll join back the queue. Thank you so much.
Thanks. Next, we have a question from Kapil Singh.
Hi, Kapil. Please proceed. We can move to the next, maybe? Hello?
Yeah. Next, we have in the queue, Jinesh Gandhi.
Hello. Hi. Hi. Can you hear me?
Yeah, Jinesh.
Yeah, hi. Congrats on a good set of numbers. Quickly, two questions on the RE business. So, on the export side, we have started to see some bit of pickup on the wholesale volume side. Are you seeing similar trends on the retail? Are things looking up now vis-à-vis what it was six months back?
In the international market, Jinesh?
Yes. Yes.
No. You all know, the last call also, I was just telling, we don't have the wholesale. Wholesale is only a transactional number for us. We always look at retail. And as the retail has gotten better and last year, as I mentioned, the retail focus is what is there. There is happy to share that the retail had been very good in all the markets across the globe, outside India too. And to that extent, you are seeing the wholesale also picking up slowly.
Okay. So, we should expect this trending to improve upon given our recovery in the retail.
That's how the equation also works. But all of us have to be keeping only one thing in mind. You know, the international market macro situation, it's a market-by-market situation. It's not across. So every market, depending upon the consumer sentiment, we will actually be looking at, as I always say, for wholesale, we can go on and do more numbers. But we are not that sort of a company. We look at retail. We actually look at it as a full brand rather than a push. So it's for a long term. What is required for the international market for us to be the leader over the period of time? All the key things which have to be in place is what is the focus. The team is actually doing it. We have our own subsidiary wherever it's required.
We have our own CKD plants. Our teams are on the ground of actually picking up the consumer sentiments. We are looking at integration of the DMS. We are looking at the CRM package integration with the central team. So all those activities are happening constantly in the international markets because we know for sure there is a huge market potential for us. And all our products are also fully accepted in the international market very well. So that's the positive feel which we have about the international market.
Got it. Got it. And second question on the RE margins, Royal Enfield margins. So clearly, we have seen a healthy evolution of margins holding up upwards of 27%. From where we are today, what are the push and pulls which we are seeing on margins over the next 12-18 months? What are the drivers you'd be looking from a margin perspective?
So, first of all, revenue growth itself is something that we are absolutely focused on. We are looking at absolute increase as far as Vida is concerned. We're not necessarily so focused on percentages, as you know. So growth, I think, in revenues will obviously flow through to us in terms of the bottom lines.
Hello.
We are also kind of increasing share. The international market coming back will also obviously have a bit of a flow through as far as our profitability is concerned. And I think we are also seeing, you know, great growth happening in the non-motorcycle side of the business, which is attractive to us. I think that is something that will also kind of flow through. So I think commodity we are kind of keeping an eye out on at the moment. We're not seeing too much pressure coming in. But that is something that obviously we'll keep watching out for and see how that impacts us.
Got it. And Vidhya, just one clarification on VECV. We have seen some restatement of margins. As a result, margins have declined in fourth quarter on year-over-year basis. But on quarter-over-quarter basis, margins, again, have declined despite seasonally strong quarter. Any one-offs there?
Yeah. Basically, last year in Q4, there were some fiscal incentives which we had accrued based on the very old which were pending in Madhya Pradesh government. So due to that, there was one-off in last year Q4. So due to that, the margin looked lower than the last year Q4. Other than that, there is no other.
But even on QQ basis, it has declined. So, despite 25% growth in volumes.
QQ basis is not a very big thing. But that's fine. That's not a one-off incentives.
Got it. Thanks. I'll fall back in queue.
Hi, Kapil. You can try again. Okay. Seems some issues. So we can go ahead with Raghu.
Good afternoon. I hope I'm audible. A couple of questions. Firstly, on commercial vehicle side. So on electric, E, LCV, ESCV, buses, if you can talk a little bit about the volume potential going ahead, how you see that entry into ESCV to become big for the company. And also that on the e-buses, given the announcements on payment security mechanism, would you become more aggressive in future?
Definitely, the e-vehicles are evolving now. Buses will be the one, I think, which will have good growth this year because government has this program, Prime Minister e-bus program, under which they are going to come out with more and more tenders. But of course, we will be very careful, not putting in the bids to pursue the volume at any cost. So therefore, you know, we will we will see that what makes sense for us. But of course, as far as the products are concerned, we are all ready with the 9-meter bus product, 12-meter bus product. And we are also going to introduce 13.5-meter intercity bus product. So products-wise, we are ready.
But of course, we will be very careful and think the government business of state transport undertakings because that business model still is very, very difficult business model where the entire payment is on per-kilometer basis for next 12 years. So therefore, we have to see that if we do that business, it is done at the right prices. As far as the trucks are concerned, we were the first ones to introduce electric truck in 5.5-ton category. And last year, we have sold 75 electric trucks. And this year, of course, the traction is good. And we are also going to come out with more models in electric trucks. And the small commercial vehicle which we had unveiled in Bharat Mobility Expo in February.
And that, that product also, we have now given on pilot basis to 10 customers last month. And, that will be introduced on commercial basis from January this year. So again, that's a very high potential. And this, of course, the electric model will be followed up by diesel and CNG in the next six months. So therefore, it's an electric technology. It's evolving. We are, we are very much there in all these segments. But of course, we will be very, you can say, careful, where we have to get in and where we don't have to get in.
Thank you for that answer, sir. Congrats on the market share gains you've been seeing. If you can talk a little bit about the demand outlook also, how you are seeing the demand and, how you see the prospects.
As far as the demand for commercial vehicle market is concerned, I think, it has got a very good potential for growth, fundamentally because our economy is continuing to do well. And of course, we are expecting on the back of our 6%-8% growth last year, we are expecting that this year, also, the economy should grow by 7%+. So that is the first fundamental reason of growth. Secondly, the strong infrastructure program from Government of India. And third is the pent-up replacement demand, which continues to be very strong because the new trucks or new technology trucks, which have a lot of electronics and a lot of telematics and a lot of, new features which enhance the productivity and efficiency of the trucks, it makes a lot of business sense to replace the old fleet.
So therefore, you will see more and more fleet for this one. So therefore, the CB demand will also increase because of the replacement of the old trucks. So all three fundamental factors point towards that CB industry is going to have a good future, even though there may be hiccups, this month or that month. But overall, on a CAGR basis, you will see you are going to see a good growth.
Thank you so much, sir. Just a quick question to BGR, sir. Sir, if you can talk about Shotgun 650, what would be the current volume and potential? And is there a case for a 350cc bobber?
New products, we all talk about it. When that comes near to the new product coming up, we will talk about it. Shotgun, you know, is, once again, a product inspired by custom and for customs. When we launched Super Meteor 650, at that time also, we were thinking, it's a stunning motorcycle. It has launched in January. There is a huge response in the international market. It's a product which has just come. We had to nurture it. But what we are doing is we are also working along with all the custom builders and how that entire ecosystem can be integrated so that the product can be taken to the next level. So there's a lot of work which is happening. We see that product has a huge potential. It's a very planted motorcycle. And it has a very different look and feel.
Consumers are enjoying it. In fact, I'm at the U.K. Tech Center. And yesterday, when I met a consumer who bought this, he was he was in love with this motorcycle. And he said that when I saw it, I thought I should have it immediately. So to that extent, there is a good response. So as I mentioned, it is it's it's just coming to the market. And we have to work on it a bit more. But we see there's a huge potential for that product also.
Thank you so much, sir. I'll fall back in the queue. Best wishes.
Thanks. Next, we have a question from Vinay Singh. Please unmute.
Hi, team. So thanks for the opportunity. One trend that we see in Royal Enfield in the last two quarters is that the greater than 350cc portfolio is doing well, partly driven by product launches. But just to understand the customer profile, is that changing? Because I remember earlier, the company always talked about this replacement consumer coming back, you know, people who had a Royal Enfield buying a Royal Enfield. And then we used to also talk about the average age profile coming down when the 350cc portfolio was rising. So with these new launches, are you able to sort of see any changes in your customer profile? Are people replacing? That's the first question.
Yeah. Yeah. I think the products coming up, in the 350cc and above, the numbers are also coming. You know, percentages are equally to be looked at. What's happening in 350cc, right? But we have to grow all the platforms, all the CCs. That's what the team is working on. But the new products like the Himalayan 450 on the Sherpa platform, which we launched, 650 motorcycles, Shotgun, Super Meteor, all those things are doing well. You will see more products even in that. So those are also will be growing. In the 350cc also, the products, we are planning a lot of activities which will be happening. Overall, the growth is happening in all the areas. You touched upon the topic of the replacement cycle in the last call also. I mentioned it is yet to kick in. But we have to be prepared.
So what we have done is to give a very frictionless experience for those consumers, almost about 6 million motorcycles which are there in the market as a vehicle park for them at a particular point of time to give the new motorcycle which they can exchange with. We came out with a Reown as a platform, Reown with exchange for the customer to upgrade. Having said, you know, we don't want our customers to actually change the motorcycle just because we have a new motorcycle. We have to be actually working with them that they enjoy the motorcycling experience. Somebody who bought a Classic at some point of time, if he wants to enjoy our Interceptor today, and then we should be there to actually help him out to enjoy the motorcycling. And that's the focus which we are doing now.
The replacement cycle will kick in at some point of time. But yet to see a good traction, you know. It'll take some time. But I think it's a growth path for us in future.
Thanks for that. Secondly, could you share a little bit about, like, finance penetration? How is it now for you? And also the three programs that you started last year, the Reown, the leasing program, what sort of percentage contribution is it coming from them? I assume will be very small.
Our finance penetration, as of now, is about 61%. It's steadily growing over the period of time. I mean, because when the demography is coming down, it also is quite natural that the finance penetration will be there. So, you know, we came out with the digital finance marketplace PFM, which we did. We integrated that to our website. And on a journey of the consumers at the front end, we actually socialize that and say, "This is the finance option which is available," and very attractive finance schemes which every consumer is working on. Yeah. It's a lever, and it has to be available. You know, as I mentioned, frictionless experience is everything. When the consumer wants it, it should be available. That's what is the focus which we are doing. You asked about the Reown, and Reown as a program.
Just launched. We piloted in few cities. In those areas, the numbers are coming in. We have to work with the entire ecosystem. We have to work with our dealership. We have to explain to them about the business model, in which way it is better for them, beneficial for them, and also to the consumers. So it is slowly taking traction, Vinay. It won't be overnight. But it is the thing which we feel for an upgrade cycle is very important for us.
Thanks, team. Lastly, any price hikes we've taken recently? Anything on that in the Royal Enfield side, and in the VECV side?
Royal Enfield side, we haven't taken a price hike any recently. VECV, maybe we don't.
In VECV, we are focusing more and more on the discount reduction. So even though you will not see the increase in the MRPs, so but we are trying to plug the gap between the MRP and the transaction prices. So therefore, you will see more and more rationalization happening in the discounts.
Great. Great. Thanks a lot, team. Best wishes for future quarters.
Thanks. Next, we have a question from Arvind Sharma.
Yeah. Hi. Hi. Can you hear me?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Two questions from my side. First, on the realizations. In Royal Enfield, they were quite strong this quarter. Any specific reason and sustainability thereon?
You asked? The quarter is strong. Is there a decrease on this quarter?
Sir, on the realizations, the ASPs.
Average sales maybe. Oh.
I think, no. It's just that there is an export. So that is, of course, possibly impacting ASPs. Apart from that, we had, like, a price increase in May last year. So I think quarter-on-quarter, that the full benefit is coming through this quarter. So that's also there. So that's basically what the from, the, you know, the reason for the ASP.
We haven't taken any price increases, Arvind. It's only the mix and the higher CC motorcycles, which I think the previous question also, which was asked. So that's what is actually helping us in the ASP.
Thank you. Thank you for the response. The second question would be on commodity prices. Where are you seeing the trends right now? And again, would they be passed on, or would you tend to absorb them, going forward? If you could please elaborate on that.
You know, commodities, this is not a headwind as of now. Is it a tailwind? May not be. So to that extent, there is a some amount of a stability which is there. But it will be always always, we will track it and then see what is that we have to do in this, especially the high-cost, the PGMs which goes into the motorcycles. And, we are constantly working on value engineering to offset that. So passing on, not passing on, is time to time when we do a pricing committee discussion. At that point of time, we decide. But it is also, you know, commodity going up, commodity coming down is doesn't mean that cost plus is actually the price. That's not the equation now we can play in the market. So it has to be the price-value proposition for the consumer. And what does it mean?
What is that we are offering to the consumer? So that comes as a prime question for us always. So it's only a one side of an equation. But we constantly see that what's the price-value equation. And, depending upon that, we take a decision on that.
For now, you're not seeing any cost pressures as of now?
It doesn't seem to be there at this juncture.
All right. Thank you, sir. That's all from my side. Thank you so much.
Thanks. Next question is from Chandramouli.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question is on the export markets. We have been making a concerted push into growing in the export markets for the past 5-6 years now. So at just at this juncture in our journey, just wanted to understand, versus the Indian middleweight market, what are some of the similar factors for Royal Enfield's growth journey in export markets? And what are some of the factors that are slightly different which you're having to sort of navigate around to potentially replicate the growth you had in the domestic middleweight market in in some of the key export markets, that we presently have sort of 8%-10% market share?
Yeah. So Chandramouli, you know, in any of the markets, India, as Siddhartha was mentioning earlier, the market for the middleweight are somewhere around 50,000-55,000 in 2011 types. We grew the market to almost about 900,000+. The addressable market outside India is also almost the same size. But that has been grown by somebody over the period of time. With the first product of our twins, we really felt because earlier to that, our 350cc motorcycles were not an export-worthy motorcycles because it can't stand the emission norms which are required. But the J platform, when we brought in the super refined engine, we really felt that that motorcycle is also exportable. Then we started working on twins. Now, the all-new Sherpa 450cc platform, water-cooled. The products which are coming in, they're all now global appeal products. So products are sorted.
You will see more products which we are working on. The international market, what's more important is, as we always say, if we have to go open up more stores and then do a wholesale, that's an easy thing because now there is an acceptance. But that's not what we are as a company. We always look at our brand has to be in full brand. People should enjoy owning our motorcycles. In a situation where the macroeconomics are not so good, that's not the time to go and actually look at expansion in an aggressive way. We are a long-term aggressive company. We don't do anything short-term, which I always say.
So what is required for the international market of actually having our own subsidiaries, our own team on the ground, constantly looking at the market growth, brand building, and community building, creating rides wherein we can be part of the community and ride motorcycles? That's what is the work which we are doing at whenever the market opens. And I mean, in fact, one more thing is the CKD plants, more and more the CKD plants where it is required to be near to the consumer, which also we are doing at. When the market opens up, you will see Royal Enfield riding the wave, in the international market. I see some good green shoots now. The retails are better for us last year. And that's why you are seeing the wholesale also slightly better.
In time to come, I think the market opens up, we are there for a good success.
Maybe I'll just add a little bit to add some more, a different texture to this, I think, from what you're asking, is that, I mean, very simplistically, we divided in our export markets into two. One is the richer countries such as U.S., Europe, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Korea, where the markets are there. They're not growing, maybe even declining. But affordability is very strong. If people like something, they'll pick it up. I mean, if it's $5,000-$7,000, you know, it'll just, you know, it's that's not a problem. So Royal Enfield's salience is strong. The offer is great. The bike is relatively affordable to these guys and and great, great, absolutely amazing value. So and our markets are strong, very strong in these markets. So that's one set of markets where there's not huge growth.
There is growth potential for us, but within the spectrum of the market, rather than growing the market as such, beyond the point, right? So that's the Western markets. But they're very important also from a profitability angle. Then you have, for us, what is the high-potential markets, some markets in LATAM, some markets in Southeast Asia, where we see that we can make, let's say, in inverted commas, mini Indias, right? So, and we're going that with that approach, after having learned in some of these markets over the last many years, we are focusing in on some of them to really penetrate deeper to make it an India-like idea for us, which is we get onto a virtuous cycle. So we're in a virtuous cycle in India where we have a strong distribution, strong demand, strong residual value, strong service network, great brand recall.
You know, and that promotes all of these things, again. That means so then more demand comes in, and it's a virtuous cycle. So that's what we're trying to do in some of the LATAM and Southeast Asian markets where we feel as, let's say, we term them ourselves as sort of new home markets, right? So where we want to be really present. So our infrastructure, our market companies so we do our own distribution, in some of these markets. And we will do our own distribution. We appoint the dealers ourselves. You know, we may even have our own store once in a while. But really, to get deep into a few of these markets where we see long-term potential in the next five, 10, 15 years of, you know, solid growth and becoming a big player in the motorcycle market in these countries, right?
So that's the objective.
Got it. That's super helpful. My second question is on the upcoming sort of 450cc platform launches over the next few years. We've historically been a company that's been a very good upgrade option for users from other brands. And then over time, we've graduated into offering upgrade options for our own customers from 350 to 650. And now, we have a more affordable upgrade option which will start coming through in terms of more 450cc products. So just wanted to understand what are some of the dynamics in you know 350 to 450cc upgrading strategy that we have for our customers and any early learnings or insights from the Himalayan 450 that we've launched a few months back.
Himalayan 450 is, you know, a motorcycle which is adventure. Yet you can use it for your daily usage type of motorcycle, right? It's indexed in that. So it's not for everyone. But anyone who likes a bit of an adventure also will enjoy that motorcycle. So that's where the positioning of that motorcycle, that will continue. But on the 450cc platform, the new products which we are planning soon, which will be launched soon, that all will actually help us in the upgrade and also getting the new customers.
Got it. That's helpful. Thank you very much, and all the best.
Thanks. Next question is from Mumuksh Mandlesha.
Yeah. Thank you so much for the opportunity, sir. So firstly, one to Vinod, sir. Industry CV demand has been muted recent times. So how are, basically, the profitability of the fleet operators? And, and how is it generally the discounting trend in the market?
The industry in quarter four this year has been a little bit subdued. One of the strong reasons is that last year Q4, there was some pre-buying. So a lot of you can say there was some shift from this year industry to that last year's Q4 because of OBD2 norms which became applicable from 1st April 2023. Because of that, this quarter looked a bit weak as compared to the previous year quarter four. But fundamentally, there is no other reason why the industry should be lower. And the other, of course, the second fundamental reason could be the elections which are currently going on. And a lot of government machinery is busy on the election side. Therefore, no new projects or no new payments also are, you know, slow in getting released. So that is the second reason.
As far as the transporter profitability is concerned, I don't see any concern there. Transporters are doing well. They have got good demand. They have got good, basically, the business. But they are right now, they are not buying because sometimes, they also, have the experience that during the election time, when they buy, vehicles, sometimes, those are also taken by the various, politicians for the campaign or for various other type of purposes. So they don't want to, you know, some some of the first-time users, they become a little bit more cautious. So therefore, you will see a lot of action after the new committee is in place.
Understood, sir. Very helpful. So, just to go in, sir, on the exports market, we now have five assembly plants globally. Just want to understand what kind of capacity for these plants are there and what would be the current volumes from these markets. Just want to understand more on how big is this middle motorcycle segment market in these five regions and what kind of run-rate volumes they are looking over the medium term.
You know, on the CKD plants, majority is local content and a vehicle assembly line. All those areas, as of now, we are mandated for one shift. That's how it is. So there is a potential for us to run two more shifts to that extent capacity is available. When the market opens up, we can invest a bit more into this. So that's not a major problem for us in the CKD plants because that's not a big manufacturing plant where the capital-intensive types. It's only an assembly line extension which is possible for us to do within about two months' time window.
Just on the market potential in these five markets.
I don't have an exact number, to be honest. Maybe we can share it with you. Only in these markets, what's the numbers and, where where are we seeing it?
Thank you so much for the question.
Thanks. That was the last question. So for any follow-up questions or unanswered questions, please reach out to the investor relations team of Eicher Motors Limited. I'd like to hand over the call to the senior management for closing comments. Over to you, Siddhartha.
Well, thank you all very much for attending. And, yeah, look forward to talking to you next quarter. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you all. We can conclude the call here.