India’s leading two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp is set to introduce an electric scooter in the Indian market this month. This new zero-emission vehicle will be rolled out from the company’s manufacturing facility in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from battery-operated vehicles, the company aims to launch a “wide range of premium products.” The upcoming scooter from Hero MotoCorp is expected to take on the scooters from various other companies like Ather, Ola, TVS, Bajaj, Okinawa, Bounce and more.
Announcing the company’s plans, Niranjan Gupta, Hero MotoCorp’s CFO said that the company eventually aims to cater to the users in the entire price range and will launch two-wheelers in premium, mid-range and even affordable range.
The company wants to “enable electrification for everyone” hence its vehicles will not be targeted at a set of people or geography.
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To recall, Hero MotoCorp had showcased the prototype of its first-ever electric scooter in August last year. Though this scooter didn’t look as fancy as the electric scooters of some of the new startups, it is expected to come with swappable batteries as the company.
The company has already formed a joint venture with Taiwanese company Gogoro to help set up battery swap stations in the country. Gogoro, which has over 2,000 swap stations in Taiwan, facilitates over 200,000 swaps every day.
If Hero MotoCorp’s scooter comes with the battery swapping solution, then it could solve the problem of many users in India who are unable to buy electric scooters with fixed batteries and thus help bolster the EV adoption in the country.
As per the reports, the first Gogoro battery-swapping station is expected to go live in Delhi later this year. The Taiwanese company is also in the advanced stages of discussion with iPhone-maker Foxconn to manufacture batteries in India. By the second half of 2022, Gogoro is aiming to transition some of its manufacturing capabilities to the Foxconn manufacturing facility in India.
Besides Gogoro, Hero MotoCorp has invested heavily in Ather Energy and plans to continue the investment. The company is looking to collaborate with multiple players in the segment to develop an ecosystem and help faster adoption of electric vehicles in the country.
This could mean that, unlike the current scenario where almost every EV maker is adopting a unique charging solution, we might see more and more electric scooters equipped with a swappable battery.
In a related piece of news, Hero MotoCorp had recently partnered with HPCL to set up charging stations across nine cities starting with Delhi and Bengaluru. The network will be then expanded across the country with the aim to establish a high density of charging stations. This move again is aimed at making way of creating an ecosystem and helping in faster adoption of electric vehicles across the country
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