India's leading bicycle manufacturer Hero Cycles has partnered with Japan's Yamaha Motor Company to launch the Lectro EHX20 e-bike. The EHX20 is a premium electric bike for leisure and off-road use, and has been priced at Rs. 1.35 lakh. The Lectra EHX20 is the first product of a three-way strategic partnership initiated last year between Hero Cycles Limited, Yamaha Motor Company Limited and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. The electric motor has been designed and developed in Japan, and the e-bike has been manufactured in India at Hero Cycles' Ghaziabad plant. Hero Cycles will look at exporting the Lectro EHX20 to various other countries around the world.
"We are proud to unveil the Lectro EHX20 powered by Yamaha, the first collaborative product between Hero Cycles and Yamaha Motor. It is the first branded E-Cycle which is driven by a centre motor and resultantly delivers a high performance experience suitable for extreme adventure sports. With promising days ahead for the E-Cycle market, we hope to deliver more such path-breaking products for different sections of the Indian audience in the future," said Pankaj M Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, HMC, a Hero Motors Company.
"We are very happy to work in collaboration with Hero Cycles to contribute towards revolutionising the e-cycle segment in the Indian market, taking advantage of Yamaha's experience and know-how of the centre motor drive unit," said Hiroyuki Ota, Executive Officer, Yamaha Motor Company Limited.
The Lectro EHX20 electric bike is a premum e-bike, priced at Rs. 1.35 lakh
The Lectro EHX20 is a premium product aimed at adventure lovers and mountain bike enthusiasts. The e-bike will be available at Hero Cycles outlets across all metros and the sales, distribution and marketing support is handled by Mitsui & Co. Unlike current e-bikes with rear hub motors, the Lectro EHX20 has a centre-mounted motor positioned directly between the pedals. The e-bike has a 10.9 AH battery that is swappable and comes with a claimed range of 80 km on a full charge.
The Lectro EHX20 runs on a combination of manual pedalling with battery assist and comes with five modes, each offering different power outputs from the electric motor. The EHX20 also gets triple sensor technology of torque sensor, speed sensor and crank sensor. The Lectro EHX20 can run up to 60-70 km on a charge time of 3.5 hours. The Shimano hydraulic disc brakes are said to provide superior braking force, and it gets a combination of 2x10 gears. Hero Cycles will be launching more e-bikes under the Lectro brand name in future at lower price points catering to a wide range of customers.
