INTERVIEW
POLARIS' VICE PRESIDENT OF MOTORCYCLES STEVE MENNETO
P90
its classic cruiser heritage, and
getting into being technically in-
novative, and going into different
market segments.
I think it will be exciting, and
I think it will be welcomed by
customers. One of the greatest
things about Indian is that there
are no limitations at all about
this. So I think we're excited
about where the Indian brand
will go, and the fun we can have
with that.
One of the several partner-
ships Polaris has made in
recent years has been with
Eicher in India, who are the
owners of Royal Enfield. You
have got a joint venture go-
ing with them in India—what
exactly is it?
We have teamed up with
those guys on manufacturing
some of our non-motorcycle
side-by-side vehicles in India for
the Indian market. We built a fac-
tory together in India to do that.
But Eicher is also the owner
of Royal Enfield, which is in
the middle of a spectacular
expansion program. Is Polaris
is looking at working with
Eicher in developing a single
cylinder Indian motorcycle
platform—maybe for AMA Flat
Track—because you at the
moment have only twins?
I think Scott Wine has been
clear that we want to become a
bigger player on the global stage
in motorcycles, and we know
that there are opportunities with
these in other markets that we
should be playing in. Eicher is a
great partner to work with, and
we're exploring opportunities
not only with them, but also with
others. Some opportunities have
come and gone, so we have
nothing yet that's really tangible
enough that we could say—yep,
this is where we're going. But
the opportunity to grow our busi-
ness into other global markets,
and especially in Asia, is some-
Building "American Muscle" at
the Victory/Indian plant in Spirit
Lake, Iowa.
