Hero Electric has announced a strategic collaboration with the Mahindra Group, which it says is part of its growth and expansion plans to cater to the growing demand for EVs in the country.

As part of the partnership, Mahindra will manufacture two of Hero Electric’s most popular electric scooters – the Optima and NYX – at its Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh. With this collaboration, along with the expansion of its existing Ludhiana facility, Hero Electric hopes to be able to meet its demand of manufacturing over 1 million electric two-wheelers per year by 2022.

Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric said, “The Mahindra Group has been pioneering in electric three- and four-wheelers for many years now while driving transition to EV across the consumer and B2B segment. With this partnership, we look to further enhance our manufacturing capabilities to meet demand and utilise Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centres 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.”

Another aspect of the agreement is joint development and platform sharing between the two companies. Though Mahindra doesn’t manufacture or sell any electric two-wheelers of its own, it does manufacture e-scooters for its Peugeot brand, which will also benefit from this venture.

Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, auto and farm sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra 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 Pithampur 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.”

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