Hero MotoCorp ready to bring in its first electric model next year

Hero MotoCorp, the country's leading two-wheeler maker, has announced that it is going to launch an electric model next year, marking its entry into the segment. According to a report by PTI, to develop its electric vehicle vertical, the company intends to utilise it's Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Stephanskirchen (Germany) based R&D set-ups. They are currently working to make products that have a fixed charging system.

Last month, the company tied up with Taiwan-based Gogoro Inc to bring the latter's battery swapping technology in the country by utilizing it in its future EVs. The two-wheeler maker has also invested in Bengaluru-based EV startup Ather Energy which has already introduced some of its models to tap the pulse of the market.

Niranjan Gupta, the company's chief finance officer (CFO), promised that 2022 will be a year full of surprises for two-wheeler enthusiasts. "We are trying to launch one of the EV products in the fiscal year 2022, and you will see multiple actions, whether it is our own product or a swap product or with Gogoro. All of those actions you will see in the next calendar year," he said based on the report.

Gupta added that that the company intends to use fixed as well as swapping charging technology parallelly. Battery swapping technology allows a user to quickly replace a discharged battery with a fully charged one. The timeline for both the projects is next year, he added.

The company also stressed on how the pandemic has not affected its roll-out plans. However, Hero MotoCorp did shut its plants till May 16 as the country has been facing the second wave of Covid-19. As far as the company’s plan for its premium products goes, after Xtreme 160R and Xpulse, it plans to bring more to the market every year, the CFO said. He also assured that there will not be any delay in the launches.