Murali Gopalan

Mumbai: Chennai-based Royal Enfield Motors, better known for the association with the Bullet motorcycle, is working towards developing a new 500cc engine for the overseas markets.

This is expected to be launched in the early part of 2008-09.

RL Ravichandran, CEO of Royal Enfield, told DNA Money: "Our entire focus here over the last 30 months has been on developing this lean burn engine. We are focusing on making the architecture completely different.”

What has emerged is the company’s first integrated engine. Here, the gearbox is not separate but actually integrated with the engine. The electronic fuel injection was developed with the “assistance of a world leader”.

The engine is also Euro-3 compliant going in line with the emission norms in Europe which came into force from January this year. Royal Enfield services a whole lot of markets in the region like the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands etc.

Australia and the US are also part of the global roadmap though the Euro 3 norms do not apply there yet.

Terming it “the engine of the future”, Ravichandran said that the same architecture with 350cc and 500cc options would also be launched in India at an appropriate time. For the moment, the new Machismo retailed here sports a 500cc lean burn engine which, he added, has caught the fancy of the market in a big way.

Interestingly, on the subject of engines, Royal Enfield’s name has also been doing the rounds for a different reason. It recently made public its intention to work on a bike using twin spark ignition.

Source : DNA