Companies can survive for eons, but their products are usually ephemeral. Apple may be the world’s most valuable business, yet the Apple II computer and the original Mac, which provided the early foundation of its success, live on in museums, if at all. Apple’s smartphone rival, Samsung, started by selling noodles. Ford’s latest F-150 Lightning electric truck shares little with the Model T except for four wheels. The saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” holds little weight in a world of evolving technologies, business models and consumers.
Unless, that is, you’re a Royal Enfield. In 1932 the motorcycle manufacturer, then based in Great Britain, launched the Bullet. Ninety-one years later the company, in Indian hands since 1994, unveiled the latest version of the iconic two-wheeler. It looks almost identical to the original.
Changes, the company insists, have been made to the engine (which boasts only two-thirds of the horsepower of the original), the chassis and the seat. However apart from missing ignition (which prompted some grumbles from fans) and an added fuel gauge (which elicited no comments), these are unremarkable. Features common on other 21st-century motorcycles, such as tachometers or temperature gauges – to say nothing of computer-aided driving modes for different conditions – are absent. The ride and, as one YouTuber put it, “the sweet crackling sound of an exhaust,” are probably much the same as they would have been in the 1930s.
That gives the Bullet a strong claim to being the most unchanged vehicle in continuous production – and among the most unchanging products ever manufactured (the AK-47 rifle has been around for a mere 75 years). It is also, in India, a commercial and cultural phenomenon. It continues to sell most of Royal Enfield’s other offerings, including more modern designs. More than 8,000 of an earlier version were sold in June. The total number on India’s roads is difficult to measure but is almost certainly in the millions. And few things elicit the same degree of love—not just from the country’s motorcycle enthusiasts.
There are at least 1,200 dedicated riding clubs. Specimens covered in a rusty patina can be seen darting across fields in Punjab, over dangerous mountain slopes in Ladakh, and dodging cows and cars on city streets. It is an indispensable piece of equipment for Bollywood heroes and villains alike. The Indian armed forces, which first sparked the Indian Bullet craze with an order of 500 two-wheelers in 1949 to patrol the country’s northern border, have a stunt team that rides exclusively on Bullets. In 2017 the Tornados, as the squad is called, performed a feat of carrying 58 people on a single motorcycle.
All this, in addition to the fact that the machines never seem to expire and can be repaired anywhere by almost anyone, explains the Bullet’s continued popularity. For many Indians who can hardly imagine owning a home or even a car, the Bullet is both aspirational and, at $2,400 a pop, almost attainable. With such unchanging appeal, who needs change?
© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.
From The Economist, published under license. The original content can be found at www.economist.com
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Updated: 18 Nov 2023, 17:19 IST
(tagsTo Translate)Royal Enfield
