Hero Electric, India’s No.1 EV company and the Mahindra Group today announced their collaborative intent as part of Hero’s growth and expansion plans to cater to the ever-growing demand for EVs in the country. The strategic partnership will create multiple synergies to help drive adoption across the country. As part of the partnership, Mahindra Group will manufacture Hero Electric’s most popular electric bikes – Optima & NYX at their Pitampur plant to meet the growing demands of the market. With this collaboration along with the expansion of their existing Ludhiana facility, Hero will be able to meet its demand of manufacturing over 1 million EVs per year by 2022. This will further enable them to drive adoption of a cleaner mode of transport.
Speaking on the announcement, Mr. Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric said, “Hero Electric has been leading the Electric two-wheeler sector in the country. To further deepen its roots and strengthen the leadership, Hero Electric has announced a partnership with the Mahindra Group, which is leading the EV transition in the electric three and four wheelers space. This coming together of two industry leaders is to further enhance the manufacturing capabilities to meet demand and utilize Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centers in the country. The long-term partnership will also see both the companies make the most out of each other’s deep knowledge of EVs and drive new product development in the next few years. We look forward to creating more synergies with them in the near future.”
The joint development efforts will also be a key factor in developing the platform approach to help electrification of the Peugeot Motocycles’ portfolio. This is expected to bring significant value to both parties through optimization of costs, timelines, and shared knowledge in this dynamic, fast growing global EV environment.
Sharing his thoughts on the partnership, Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto & Farm Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said, “Peugeot Motocycles has ambitious plans in the EV mobility space in several regions of the world and particularly in Europe. This strategic partnership will bolster these efforts through joint development and a platform sharing approach leveraging the combined strengths of the two businesses. Our R&D Centre in India will be integral to this arrangement as will the manufacturing facility at Pitampur, that already supplies Peugeot with EV products. I see significant value creation on a mutually beneficial basis and look forward to this partnership delivering on its obvious promise.”
The two companies will create a seamless channel of communication to aid knowledge sharing among the R&D teams to build new products and technologies. This will be done keeping the Indian and global markets in mind that will not just further the growth of electric vehicles, but also go on to set benchmarks for faster adoption in the industry.