Hero, India's Largest Electric Motorcycle Manufacturer, Launches Its First Electric Scooter

Vida, an electric scooter produced by heroes. (photo: twitter @FarlessKing111)

JAKARTA - India continues to advance as a country that challenges China's production of electric two-wheeled vehicles. Recently Hero MotoCorp India, the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer by sales, launched its first electric scooter worldwide on Friday, 7 October.

This production is to catch up with them with a new business model, namely in the transition to cleaner transportation.

Like several other legacy automakers in India, Hero has been slow to launch electric two-wheelers, which has benefited start-ups like Ather Energy, backed by Tiger Global, and Ola Electric, backed by Softbank Group.

"While it may be our desire to launch this product earlier than we have, we have to do it right for the good of everyone," Chairman Pawan Munjal told reporters at an electric motorcycle launch event in Jaipur.

The Indian government itself currently wants e-scooters and e-bikes to reach 80% of total two-wheeled vehicle sales by 2030, from around 2% currently available.

While sales are increasing as people are now moving away from gasoline scooters in the face of rising fuel prices, the recent spate of electric scooter fires has raised safety concerns, jeopardizing consumer confidence.

There are concerns that this could derail the sector's growth which is key to the country's carbon reduction goals.

Pricing for the Hero's debut model, the Vida Plus, will start at Rs 145,000, higher than most electric scooters in India. The Vida Plus will have a minimum range of 143 kilometers (on a single charge, similar to the Ather.

The company has also made a series of investments in electric vehicle startups. In September, Hero said it would invest $60 million in California-based Zero Motorcycles to jointly develop an electric motorcycle.

In January, they announced an investment of more than US$56 million in Ather and in 2021 partnering with Taiwan's Gogoro for electric vehicle battery sharing infrastructure. Hero will start taking orders on October 10th and deliveries will start in December.