The popularity of motorcycles in India can only be compared to the popularity of bicycles in Scandinavian countries. In fact, from the moment the world’s first motorized bicycles appeared, Indians immediately became their fans. Today, India is the world’s leading motorcycle manufacturer, having recently taken the lead from China. Every year, the country produces more than 10 million units of this type of equipment. Most of them are clones of products of leading world brands. However, in this abundance, there are also real gems of their Indian production.
What are Indian motorcycle brands?
There are many motorcycle brands in India. Some of them are market leaders like Bajaj, Mahindra, Hero, TVS, Royal Enfield, API, and Escorts Group.
Light motorcycles such as scooters and mopeds are in particular demand in the country. The constant demand for affordable two-wheeled transportation makes influential Indian corporations increasingly expand their offerings, buying up brands of the world’s leading manufacturers, such as Mahindra. Today, Honda, Kawasaki, Royal Enfield, and Made in India motorcycles are found in third-world countries more often than the originals. However, the Indian brand Bajaj successfully performs today at the same level as well-known brands, absolutely not inferior in its technical parameters and design to the world manufacturers. They are characterized by high quality and reliability.
Bajaj
The founder of the company, named after himself, was Jamnalal Bajaj, who, in November 1949, was a seller and importer of scooters of foreign brands. Ten years later, he acquired the right to manufacture his machinery. The production of motorized rickshaws under his brand was started. Rickshaws became very popular, and by the 70s of the last century, under the emblem of the brand Bajaj, they produced more than 100,000. In 1995, the number of this type of equipment exceeded several million. Success contributed to the expansion of production, for which, in 1986, a contract was signed with Kawasaki. Since that time, products began to come out under the brand name Bajaj-Kawasaki, and Bajaj factories began to create licensed Japanese motorcycles. Today, Bajaj is the 6th largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.
The brand logo has a single emblem color – medium Persian blue. It is a common symbol of the god Krishna in India. Blue symbolizes strength, masculinity, the guarantee of victory, and universal accessibility. The main element of the emblem is a stylized sign of a flying bird. Under it, there is an inscription – the name of the brand, made in a font, the development of which took into account modern requirements for visualization and ease of perception of images. The simplicity and brevity of the emblem are the keys to its easy memorization and recognition.
Mahindra
October 2, 1945, is the birthday of the Mahindra group of companies. Currently, it is the world’s largest Indian corporation headquartered in Mumbai. The founders of the company are Malik Ghulam Muhammad and brothers Jagdish Chandra Mahindra and Kailash Chandra Mahindra. It covers a wide field of engineering – manufacturing of automobiles, agricultural machinery, and motorcycles. Today, Mahindra & Mahindra owns the French brand Peugeot Motorcycles, Czech brand Jawa, and BSA.
The logo of the brand is known all over the world. Three stripes divide a red ellipse at the bottom. The two outer stripes close at the edges of the figure, their tops resting on the upper edge of the ellipse. The third stripe separates these two lines without touching them. Its vertex also rests on the upper edge of the ellipse. All three lines are slanted to the right, which gives the sign a visual convexity. Red is a very important color for Hindus. It symbolizes purity, the energy of movement, and life. Under the sign is the text of the brand name – Mahindra, made in Latin script using uppercase font, the first letter of which is larger than a capital letter. The font is made in a monochrome variant. Depending on the location of the emblem, it can be gray, white, or black.
Hero
Founded in 1983 by Brijmohan Lall Munjal in 1984, the brand was until recently known as Hero Honda, which was ranked 108th in the Forbes list of the world’s top 200 companies in 2006. In 2011, the relationship with Honda ended, and the Indian was renamed Hero Motocorp Ltd. In 2014, Hero contributed to the American company Erik Buell Racing by becoming an equity stakeholder. This move expanded the ability to sell its products in the US. Today, Hero Motocorp’s products account for almost half of the motorcycles sold in the Indian market. The company’s machines are characterized by small displacement – up to 200 cc. Motorcycles are in great demand in Asia and the Caribbean.
For its logo, the brand has chosen a simple and laconic form – a graphic design of the name text used with a stylized sign of the first letter of the name. The mark is in the form of two rectangles placed on the short side at some distance from each other at an angle to the viewer. The crossbar symbolizes a wide diagonal break in the white color of the second rectangle, which is made in black and symbolizes protection from failures in Indian symbolism. The first rectangle, like the font, is in red, a symbol of movement and fortitude.
TVS
As a motorcycle manufacturer, the Indian brand TVS has been known since 1978, when the grandson of the brand’s founder, Sundaram Iyengar from Chennai, opened a motorcycle factory in Hosur. The brand began its ascent in 1911 when the founder, T.V. Sundaram Iyengar, inaugurated the first bus service in Madurai, further expanding bus and truck transportation by building its own large fleet of then state-of-the-art machinery. Today, the TVS group is a multinational company with a motorcycle division – TVS Motor Company Limited. It is the third largest Indian company in the overall list of motorcycle manufacturers in the country.
The emblem of the company is made in two colors – red and blue, which is especially important for every Indian. Red – the color of movement and a powerful charge of energy. Blue – strength, masculinity, constant struggle for the best, at the same time – accessibility. The image includes two elements – the abbreviation of the TVS brand name in blue with a slant to the right, symbolizing forward movement, and a stylized image of a horse in the moment of its flight after jumping over an obstacle, executed in red.
Royal Enfield
One of the oldest British motorcycle brands, Royal Enfield, founded in 1901, did not survive the last-century crisis of the 50s and 60s. It was bought by Madras Motors, Chennai, India, which continues the brand’s history today but in a different design and execution. The new owner had produced 846,000 motorcycles by 2018, demonstrating its strength and success. For this reason, Madras Motors has kept the brand’s historic logo intact.
The use of red and orange colors in the logo was completely in keeping with the spirit of the Indian company and the Indians themselves. These colors have an important sacred meaning. Red confirms the energy and strength characteristic of the company’s products. Orange is a favorite in India; it is sacred, promises prosperity and success, and symbolizes fire. All elements of the emblem – the sign Royal Enfield and the text, made by the original font, the curves of which resemble the curves of caterpillars, are made in red with an orange border. The mark is a circle with a hexagonal equilateral figure with rounded tops inscribed in orange. The accent figure of the logo is the first letter of the brand name, “R,” which is surrounded on both sides by outspread wings symbolizing flight and speed.
API
Founded in 1949 in Bombay (now Mumbai) and called Automobile Products of India (API), the brand focused on tricycles and pedal cars. It is best known as a manufacturer of lightweight scooters under the Lambretta brand and traditional API tricycles. The latter were produced under a license acquired from Italian manufacturers Innocenti. However, the company’s main products remained traditional auxiliary systems produced for the automotive industry – brakes and clutches. In 2002, the company announced its closure.
The emblem of the company was not distinguished by a special creative approach to its development. It was simple and laconic – text graphics of the API abbreviation in an element resembling the protective glass of a bicycle rickshaw or scooter. A simple font without unnecessary elements in monochrome. This made the name easy to remember.
Escorts Group
One of the representatives of the Indian motorcycle industry was the Escorts Group. This conglomerate, focused on agricultural machinery and automobile manufacturing, had a forty-year history of involvement in the motorcycle industry. From the 1960s to the early 2000s, it had a division that produced Rajdoot motorcycles. The main product was a licensed Polish SHL M11 175 cc. In 1984, the company launched a line of Yamaha motorcycles, the first of which was the RX 100. But in 2005, the head office decided to close this line.
Today, motorcycles of this brand can be recognized by the original logo, made in the form of a nut with an unfinished right side in the center. Its small inner protrusion to the center from the middle of the left side formed a stylized Latin letter “E” – the first in the brand name. At the same time, when looking at the mark under a certain sign, one can see the symbol of an open key formed by the contours of the element. The sign is red, which is significant for Hindus. Below it is the text – the name “Escort,” created in black color in lower case. The use of these two colors in the logo informed the Indian consumer about the visualizing characteristics of the company – strength and power, movement towards victory with guaranteed protection from failure.
Which bike company is Indian?
Several well-known motorcycle companies are registered in this country: Hero MotoCorp Ltd, Bajaj Auto Ltd, Honda Motorcycle, and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd (HMSI), TVS Motor Company Ltd, Eicher Motors Ltd – Royal Enfield, India Yamaha Motors, Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited, Piaggio India.
What bikes are made in India?
India produces motorcycles of both its own and foreign brands. Indian companies include Hero, Bajaj, TVS, Royal Enfield, Mahindra, and others. As for foreign brands of motorcycles produced at factories in India, the most prominent representative of this category is the Austrian KTM.
Who makes Indian motorcycles now?
American brand Indian Motorcycles was acquired by Polaris Industries Inc. in 2011 and still belongs to her.
Which is the best Indian bike brand?
The following motorcycle brands are considered the best in terms of mileage and price in India: Bajaj Pulsar, Honda CB Shine, Bajaj CT Series, Royal Enfield Classic 350, Hero Glamor, Bajaj Platina, Hero Passion, TVS Apache.
