UM Motorcycles Shuts Operations, Zero Units Sold in September
UM Motorcycles that had entered India via a joint venture with Lohia Auto has shut its operations here. All the dealers of UM have closed their shops owing to almost no demand and no support from the manufacturer.
The brand had a total of four motorcycles in India, and the last product launched here – Renegade Commando Classic – was in September 2017. Besides poor demand, an ongoing dispute between UM and Lohia too have been a reason behind all of this.
As per the September 2019 sales numbers released by SIAM, UM sold zero units thus further confirming that sales operations have finally been shut. For people not in the know, United Motors is an American company but they don’t even sell bikes there. And when they were almost a decade ago, they were only importing Chinese motorcycles from different manufacturers and putting their logo.
In fact in India as well, the quality of their products were below average to say the least. A total of four UM motorcycles – Renegade Sports S, Renegade Commando Mojave, Commando Classic and Commando – priced between Rs 1.66 lakh – Rs 1.96 lakh (ex-showroom).
The UM motorcycles were being manufactured at the company’s Kashipur Plant in Uttarakhand, but the operation is shut for over a couple of months. Speaking to ET Auto, Lohia Auto’s CEO Ayush Lohia said – “As of today getting operational in the near term is not possible because there is no support from the UM side.” He further said that Lohia is still ready to support its dealer partners, but they can’t do it alone as UM seems to be not interested any more.
In short, the company has unofficially shut its operations in India leaving both the customers and dealers in dilemma.
