Hero MotoCorp achieves 100-million production landmark

Country’s largest two-wheeler company Hero MotoCorp on Thursday said its next target to achieve 100 million (10 crore) two-wheelers is in the next 10 years, out of which two-third sales will be of premium products and scooters.

For the next five years, the company will also launch 10 new products every year, including variants and upgrades of the existing models.

Also read: Hero MotoCorp to increase prices up to ₹1,500 from January

“So far what you have seen from Hero is almost 50 per cent in the commuter segment and the rest 50 per cent from scooters and premium products (150cc-200cc). Going forward, that will move to two-thirds from scooter and premium segment,” Pawan Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, Hero MotoCorp, told here.

The company achieved a milestone of producing 100-million two-wheelers cumulatively on Thursday. The company has six plants in India — Daruheda, Gurugram, Neemrana, Haridwar, Chittoor and Halol — and two plants, one each in Bangladesh and Columbia. With all plants put together, the company has an annual capacity of nine-million units per annum.

Ather partnership

On electrification of its two-wheelers, Munjal said the Ather partnership is doing well. “Both the founders are doing great job and they are diligently following their dream, their vision and we have seen the results in the recent past of what all they have done. We are putting our mind behind them and full support,” he said, adding that “the broad theme right now is ‘be the future of mobility. So, the partnership, collaboration would be in that direction and EV will be just one part of that direction.”

On asked about its global businesses and if there is any plan to expand, especially in the ASEAN market, Munjal said that right now the focus is towards only Latin America and Africa.

“As we speak we are going to start in one of the bigger markets in Latin America-Mexico. We have also added onto successful Central American foray with distributors in Nicaragua and Honduras. There is a renewed vigour in Hero about its global business. We have given ourselves big targets internally -- the new slogan for our global business is R4 -- Recalibrate, Revitalise, Revolutionise and Revive,” he said.

He further said that markets in ASEAN countries ‘have been penetrated by some players for a long time and the penetration in those markets is also high in terms of volume like Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. We have seen other players going into Indonesia, but not getting success so far. So we are first focusing on African continent and Central and Latin America’.

The company rolled out the 100 millionth bike -- the Xtreme 160R –from its facility in Haridwar (Uttarakhand). This is also the 20th consecutive year that Hero MotoCorp has retained the coveted title of the world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, the company said.

Hero MotoCorp’s achievement is one of the fastest global achievements of the 100 million cumulative production mark, with the last 50 million units coming in just seven years.

“We are going to continue to ride our growth journey. In keeping with our vision to ‘Be the Future of Mobility’ we will be launching a host of new motorcycles and scooters over the next five years, in addition to expanding our global footprint. We will also continue to invest in R&D and focus on new mobility solutions,” Munjal added.