Royal Enfield Swerves Trump Tariffs With Early Bike Shipments
Royal Enfield shipped a reported 9,000 bikes to North America to circumnavigate Trump’s tariffs - 3,000 more bikes than it sold there last year
Royal Enfield becomes another name on a long list of multinational companies looking to avoid costly tariffs. The move comes as President Trump looks to price out foreign competition and to protect the native automotive industry.
According to Bloomberg, Royal Enfield sped a shipment of 9,000 bikes to North America, with the outlet going on to report that number is around 3,000 more than it sold in the nation last year. Some of that surplus could be earmarked for expansion in the USA, although some could also be used for the Canadian market - which distributes bikes via its southern neighbour. Bloomberg goes on to say that the shipment of metal took place before the March 26 cut-off date, after which a 25 per cent duty on the bikes would have applied.
Bloomberg goes on to say that the Indian bike maker is looking into localising its Canadian inventory, potentially avoiding any further fallout between the neighbouring nations that could be on the horizon.
Royal Enfield isn’t the only big-name brand getting creative to avoid being priced out of the lucrative US market. A number of European and Japanese car makers pulled out of North America altogether, and Apple went to even greater measures to ensure its latest iPhones could be sold there. It’s reported that Apple chartered around six cargo planes to carry iPhones from India to America before the latest tariffs came into effect, with a reported $2 billion worth of products crossing the Atlantic.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
