Hero MotoCorp on Tuesday said it is not worried about competition in the electric vehicle (EV) space where rivals like Ola Electric and TVS Motor are leading the market.

“EV is like a marathon and not a 100-metre race. Overall it is just 15 per cent of the total two-wheelers market right now, and within that you have multiple players. Break that up and you will see how much each of them command,” Niranjan Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, Hero MotoCorp, told reporters here on the sidelines of a new product launch here.

He said there will be more players in the future and at the same time there may be companies shutting shops due to competition or not getting subsidies.

Churn in segment

“There will be more players probably coming in, there will be players who have to consolidate and fold back, so next three years will see a churn in this segment because obviously subsidies also cannot continue forever. In a marathon, seldom you will see that the winner of the marathon is ahead in the first 100 metres. So honestly EV is that race where you have to do things rightly,” he said.

Hero MotoCorp is ensuring that all infrastructure is built – stores, charging infrastructure, the Ather tie-up – creating the maximum footprint for charging where seamlessly customers can charge at Ather station/ Hero station, as the products have been built accordingly.

“So if you look at the entire story of the portfolio we are building, the store, the charging infrastructure, I would say that the game in EV has just started. In fact more the players, more the competition and more innovation will happen.

We should not look at just selling in India, we should look at how India can sell EV to the world. So we are not worried at all,” Gupta said.

Retail sales

According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association, the EV two-wheeler retail sales grew by around 17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in December to 75,522 units compared with 64,660 units in December 2022. Ola led the market with 30,263 units followed by TVS Motor with 12,444 units and Bajaj Auto at 10,377 units. Hero MotoCorp sold only 1,594 units and stood at sixth position.

In the calendar year 2023, the EV two-wheeler retail sales grew 36 per cent YoY to 8,59,376 units compared with 6,31,464 units in January-December 2022.

Meanwhile, Gupta said the company has a presence in 100 cities now for its EVs, and will expand it to 150 by end of this financial year. Hero MotoCorp will also be launching three new EVs this year – two in consumer segment and one business-to-business model.

(The correspondent was in Jaipur at the invitation of Hero MotoCorp)

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