Currently Exploring Legal Options
Harley-Davidson announced it would pull out of India not that long ago as part of its major restructuring plan. This clearly was a major blow to the 33 Harley dealerships in the country.
According to the Times of India, the owners of these 33 Harley-Davidson dealerships are now looking at their legal options and may sue The Motor Company.
It’s unclear exactly what will happen with this. It’s further confused by the fact that Hero MotoCorp recently signed a deal with Harley to do distribution and some manufacturing for the brand. According to the Times of India, neither Harley nor Hero wanted to discuss the predicament on the record.
The publication did say that the dealers are. “not happy with the treatment that they have received.” Right now these dealers are going over their legal options to see what can be done.
When Harley first announced it was pulling out of India, I wondered what kind of advanced notice it had provided to its dealer network there. That could be a massive blow, and I’d like to hope that Harley didn’t just spring it on the dealers. However, few things have gone smoothly for HD recently, so I wonder if that’s precisely what’s happened. It will be interesting to see where this story goes in the future.