Hero Electric Plans to Up Capacity Five Fold
Hero Electric, Subsidiary of Hero Eco Ltd. is planning to invest in a new manufacturing plant of e-scooters. The proposal is to invest Rs. 700 Cr. over a period of three to four years by adding a greenfield plant and expanding the existing plant of e-scooters in Ludhiana.
Hero Electric’s Growth Plan
Hero is planning to increase its capacity from 1,00,000 units per annum to 5,00,000 units per annum. At present in its Ludhiana facility 75,000 units are being manufactured. The plan is to double its production to 1,50,000 units per annum. The remaining capacity addition will be through a greenfield project either in Punjab or in Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka. On 26th August 2019, at the launch of e-scooter, Dash, Sohinder Gill, Hero Electric India CEO mentioned, “It (Hero Electric) plans to increase its touch-points to 1,000 by end of 2020, up from 615 at present.” He also mentioned introducing pocket-friendly and economic e-scooters.
Hero Electric the market leader in E Scooters
As mentioned in Times of India article dtd 24th September 2019, Sohinder Gill said, “We have seen sales nearly double over the last six months, and we now have a 65 percent market share”. Hero Electric is one of the oldest as well as the biggest electric vehicle brand in India. In FY 19 around 65,000 electric two-wheelers were sold out of which 43% were sold by Hero.
Competitors of Hero Electric
Electrotherm (India) Ltd., Avon Cycles Ltd, Ampere Vehicles Pvt Ltd., Lohia Auto Industries, Okinawa Autotech Pvt. Ltd., are some of the major players of e-scooters in India.
Electric in India – Future Scenario
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had set a target, for having 30% of vehicles in India as electric vehicles by 2030. As per the report of a consulting firm P&S Market Research sales of electric vehicles are expected to touch 9,35,000 units by 2023.
Government Policy Advantage
Recent announcement done by Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman for customs duty exemption on lithium-ion cells will help in the reduction of cost of lithium batteries and in turn may lead to reduction of cost of e-scooters.
