Exclusive: Hero Electric To Double Dealership Network Across India

Hero Electric, India's leading electric two-wheeler manufacturer has strong growth plans in the next 2-3 years, Naveen Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Electric told carandbike in an exclusive interaction. The Gurugram-based firm, which sold around 53,500 electric two-wheelers in the last financial year, intends to increase the number of 450 dealerships and 250 sub-dealers right now, to around 1,200 within the next two to three years. The company has also trained 6,000 road-side mechanics to deal with any issue its customers may face. Within the next three years, Hero Electric intends to train over 20,000 road-side mechanics to instill confidence in buyers.

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Hero Electric has a range of city-speed electric scooters

"We also have what we call the Professional Garage Owners, or PGOs, who also meet demands of the electric mobility industry. It's an ecosystem that will allay fears of the customer who is a little wary of maintenance. Electric vehicles are low maintenance, but they are not 'no maintenance'. There could be accidents, wear and tear, and other maintenance issues which need to be addressed," Munjal told carandbike.

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Naveen Munjal, Managing Director, Hero Electric spoke with carandbike in an exclusive interaction

"Range anxiety is one of the biggest factors which prevents a customer to convert to electric. For any range anxiety which customers may have, our products have portable batteries, which can be carried home to be charged overnight. And additionally, we have our own charging infrastructure, where we have over 1,500 charging points across the country, in markets, grocery shops and the like. We intent to increase the number of charging points to 20,000 over the next two years," Munjal said.

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Hero Electric has had the best year ever in 2020-21, with 53,500 units sold in the financial year. Overall, the company averaged between 8,500 to 9,000 unit sales every month, with sales in March 2021 crossing 8,500 units. And it's not just wholesale numbers that are reflecting the consumer interest in electric mobility. In fact, in March 2021, retail sales accounted for over 10,500 units, and actual market demand seems to be much more than the wholesale despatches, Munjal said.

The Hero Electric AE-47 electric motorcycle, showcased at the Auto Expo 2020, will be introduced in a couple of years

Talking about business plans, Munjal said that the company is aiming to sell 1,00,000 units in the 2021-22 fiscal, doubling the current number of 53,500 units. To meet the rising numbers, Hero Electric is going to expand its production capacity, first by setting up a new manufacturing unit at its facility near Ludhiana to increase annual production capacity from the current 75,000 units to 3,00,000 units by the end of the current year. By the end of 2022, Hero Electric intends to increase production to 10,00,000 units.

Currently Hero Electric offers a total of 13 electric two-wheeler spread across 6 platforms, and segmented into low-speed (Comfort Speed or below 25 kmph) and city-speed (City Speed or around 40-45 kmph) categories. Hero Electric's most affordable electric scooter is the Hero Flash LX, priced at Rs. 46,640, while the most expensive electric two-wheeler is the Hero Photon HX, priced at Rs. 79,940.