It would appear that even the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer is not immune to delays when it comes to launching an EV.
In August 2021, Hero teased an upcoming electric scooter and the brand then confirmed in November that this scooter would launch in March 2022. The company has now just unveiled its new Vida brand under which EVs will be sold, the first of which will be unveiled on July, 1 2022.
It is presently not clear whether this delay is due to product related complications or because of the battle between Hero MotoCorp and Hero Electric for rights over usage of the brand name for EVs.
Hero, who own a 35 percent stake in Ather Energy, has been making quite a bit of EV news over the past year. In 2021, Hero also announced an agreement with Taiwan-based Gogoro, and it will be interesting to see if this upcoming EV will use a battery swapping system based on the one Gogoro uses.
As for the electric scooter itself, we only got a brief glimpse of it from Hero MotoCorp’s 10-year anniversary celebration video. That was enough to tell that it has a fairly conventional scooter shape, which looks like a mid-mounted motor and a single-sided rear suspension.
Hero says that the new e-scooter will be manufactured at its youngest plant in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh that commenced operations in March 2020.
Vishal Venugopal
Ved Janve
Azaman Chothia
