Just the other day, Hero Electric, which was till recently was the country's number one seller of electric two-wheelers, suffered a setback in its plea against Hero MotoCorp. The latter has got a tribunal nod for the usage of the brand name 'Hero' for its EVs.
Hero Electric had filed the plea that it alone, which had been in the EV market for long, should be allowed to hold on to the 'Hero' trademark, which in the automobile scheme of things in India enjoys a lot of cachet. Anyway, undeterred by the reversal suffered in the legal forum, Hero Electric announced the rollout of its first batch of electric scooters from Mahindra Group’s Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh.
Hero Electric, it may be recalled, is in a 5-year partnership with Mahindra Electric as part of its growth and expansion plans. Hero Electric’s Optima & NYX are said to be manufactured at the plant in Pithampur.
JV on course to meet production target
Aside from sharing space for building vehicles, the two companis are also working on a common platform that will allow them to jointly share the supply chain for all new electric offerings.
Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric said, "we strongly believe in like-minded strategic partnerships to offer true value for money products in electric mobility. Tie-up with Mahindra is one such alliance that we are proud of."
He added that the two teams have been working closely for seamless integration of the manufacturing process and offer to the customer the same level of global quality that is produced from our Ludhiana plant.
The tie-up is close to reaching the half a million capacity in production that the two companies had planned a few months back.
The joint venture, valued at around $20 million (approximately Rs 150 crore) would be for five years and targets production of a million electric vehicles annually by the end of 2022.
In addition, the joint venture would also seek to electrify Mahindra's joint venture with Peugeot Motorcycles. The company plans to launch bikes from this venture beyond Indian shores, with a special focus on Europe. For the record, Hero Electric has its own manufacturing unit at Ludhiana, Punjab.
Hero Electric has worked up partnerships with companies like Bolt, ElectricPe, and Log9 for improving charging infrastructure in the country. It has entered into an agreement with Sun Mobility to offer battery-swappable e-scooters.
