Rajasthan (India):
Country’s largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp, having launched its new electric scooter under the emerging mobility business unit (EMBU) Vida on Friday, said it is planning to enter the international markets shortly. With this, the company will become one of the first to export electric two wheelers from India.“We plan to go to Latin America, Bangladesh, and wherever we have joint ventures. We have immediate plans for Europe. It won’t take us a year to go to global markets,” Pawan Munjal, Chairman and CEO, Hero MotoCorp, said on the sidelines of Vida V1 launch at its Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT) near Jaipur on Friday.
Export to Europe is slated to begin in the early months of calendar year 2023, a source close to ETAuto said.
Hero’s Vida V1 electric scooters will be produced at the company’s plant in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. The manufacturing facility which currently produces ICE vehicles is spread in an area of 600 acres and employs about 1200 people.
Hero said that the plant offers a modular structure and according to the demand, it has the capability to enhance its production capacity.
The facility has one EV line as of now and about one-fourth (200-300) of the employees will be dedicated to this line, another source confirmed.
Hero MotoCorp was earlier slated to launch its maiden offering for the EV segment in April this year. It was then delayed to July, before launching it in October. The Vida V1 scooters come in two variants of V1 Plus and V1 Pro, priced at INR 1.45 lakh and INR 1.59 lakh respectively. The introductory price is comparatively higher than that of other players in the domestic market, including Ola Electric, Ather Energy, and TVS.
“We may not have announced disruptive pricing, but we have a disruptive package. We are entering the EV market with this price point, but this does not mean that we will never have affordable products in the EV market. Surely, there will be,” Munjal said.
“Our aim is not to focus on high volumes for EVs right away. We will ramp up gradually,” he added.
The company which will initially retail its EVs in Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur, plans to introduce them in 8 more cities by the end of December this year. The bookings for the first three cities will commence from October 10 and deliveries are set to begin by mid-December. The scooters come with a removable battery and can be placed at home charging for up to 11kW.
Munjal shared that the Vida brand as EMBU is a separate vertical under Hero. “It is like a startup backed by Hero MotoCorp, and looking at Hero’s balance sheet today, there is enough cash available for it.”
The maker of Splendor and Passion is the largest in terms of motorcycle volumes in the country. Last month, it also collaborated with Zero Motorcycles, the California (USA)-based manufacturer of premium electric motorcycles. However, the company said it will bring e-motorcycles at a later stage and is not looking to introduce it in the market any time soon.
We are big in motorcycles today and as of today and in the foreseeable future there is not much happening in motorcycles in the electric space. As for scooters, we are not big today so this is an opportunity for us to take off in the scooter space as well, Munjal said.
He believes that complete transformation to EVs will not take effect immediately and ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles are there to stay for some more time.
“While many companies are giving certain dates to switch over to EVs, we must remember that in a country like ours it is not an easy task, it is an uphill task. We are also going to do that but ICE is here for some time,” Munjal said.
Hero MotoCorp has earlier invested a significant amount in the EV startup Ather Energy. Going forward, the largest two wheeler maker will be launching an electric scooter in partnership with Taiwanese battery swapping company Gogoro.
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