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Hero group signs up UK's Ultra for electric bikes
12 Oct, 2006, 0240 hrs IST,Vivek Sinha,
TNN
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NEW
DELHI: Hero Group has struck a deal with British electric vehicle company Ultra
Motors to introduce electric vehicles (EV) in the country.
Ultra Motors has signed a
technical collaboration-cum-joint marketing deal with Hero Cycles for bringing
out electric two-wheelers. Though at a nascent stage, the entry of a large
2-wheeler group like Hero could make the market for e-vehicles a vibrant
one.
As a part of the deal,
Ultra would provide the EV technology and kit, while Hero Cycles would
manufacture the final product which would be launched in January next
year.
Hero Cycles, the
world’s largest bicycle manufacturer, would be assembling the vehicles in
its existing facility at Ludhiana to begin with and is expected to set-up a new
facility for the venture
thereafter.
The vehicles
themselves would be under Hero’s brand with a co branding arrangement
wherein they would also sport the tag ‘Ultra Powered’. The USP of
EVs revolves around minimal maintenance cost with zero
emissions.
According to Vijay
Munjal, managing director of Hero Cycles, “We look forward to this
constructive partnership with Ultra Motor Company to launch our unique range of
Light Electric Vehicles in India. It’s a collaboration of our
manufacturing strength with their
technology.”
VJ Prakash,
managing director of Ultra Motor India, said, “This partnership is only
for 2 wheelers and in the future we would be looking to strike similar venture
with other partners for three
wheelers.”
Giving details
of the marketing strategy, Deba Ghoshal, director (marketing) at Ultra Motors
said, “Though some of our retail partners could be an existing retailer of
cycles, we will be creating a separate retail network for EVs. In the first six
months we would be entering north and west India and over the first one year we
would be a national player.”
Starting January ‘07 the
venture would establish 50-75 exclusive showrooms across 16 cities over a period
of one year.
As per the plans
the venture will bring out 3 electric vehicles initially with an entry level
e-bike which would retail for about Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000. This apart there would
be a higher powered e-bike plus and an e-scooter.
The entry level product, which
would not require vehicle registration, would be targeted at kids while the
ebike plus would be for institutional sales where companies with a delivery
fleet would be targeted.
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