Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest two-wheeler producer, which entered the electric scooter space earlier in October, has electric motorcycles, B2B vehicles and even autonomous vehicles in its sights over the mid to long-term time frame.
On October 7, the Pawan Munjal-led company launched an electric scooter under a new brand called Vida in the premium category with prices starting at Rs 1.45 lakh. The company will have multiple variants and modularity options with the Vida V1.
“High performance electric motorcycles, B2B (business-to-business) vehicles, multiple form factors across electric mobility, advanced driver assistance and autonomous vehicles” are a part of Hero MotoCorp’s plans, according to a disclosure made by the company.
On the services front, Hero MotoCorp plans to offer differentiated offerings like mobility as a service (MaaS) and battery as a service (BaaS) in addition to forward integration into insurance and warranty. Remote diagnostics, door-step assistance and bundled subscription plans are slated to be offered with the Vida V1.
With the Vida, Hero is starting with limited numbers in three cities – Delhi, Bengaluru and Jaipur – before adding eight more this year. Deliveries of the V1 will start from December. The next financial year will see expansion to further markets as well as commencement of exports.
Hero MotorCorp did not reply to a query mail.
Hero, which has joined hands with three entities – Ather, Gogoro and Zero — claims that the Vida V1 is its first in-house designed, developed and manufactured product having modular designs of both battery and battery management system.
The company has beefed up manpower under its newly formed Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU) with the appointment of several executives at the senior level within the last one year. Swadesh Srivastava, former senior engineer at Apple and later a senior consultant at Ola Electric Mobility, was appointed the head of Hero’s EMBU. Other appointments at EMBU such as Shekhar Mishra, Kuldeep Bhayana and Varun Shahani are individuals who have worked with Tata Motors, Coca-Cola, Ather and Goldman Sachs to name a few.
Hero MotoCorp’s entry into the electric two-wheeler space trails Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor Company. With the exception of Honda, Hero is the last of the large volume two-wheeler companies to foray into this space.
Product diversification plans of Hero MotoCorp are not new. The company had earlier spoken about plans to get into electric three-wheelers and four-wheelers. It had also showcased a diesel and a petrol-hybrid two-wheeler a few years ago.
Analysts have expressed apprehension over the premium positioning adopted by Hero with the Vida V1, considering that half of its sales come from rural geographies.
“We maintain HOLD rating on Hero MotoCorp (HMCL) amid muted volume recovery prospects in the two-wheeler segment, HMCL’s focus to target the premium segment in the EV space through its offering under brand Vida with premium pricing despite being a mass market mother brand and slower than anticipated rollout pan India,” a report from ICICI Direct Research said.
