Hero Electric and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Wednesday announced a collaboration for joint production, development and knowledge sharing in the electric mobility space.
“Hero Electric and the Mahindra Group today announced their collaborative intent as part of Hero’s growth and expansion plans to cater to the ever-growing demand for EVs in the country. The strategic partnership will create multiple synergies to help drive adoption across the country,” the companies said in a statement.
As part of the partnership, Mahindra Group will manufacture Hero Electric’s most popular electric bikes – Optima and NYX at their Pitampur plant to meet the growing demands of the market, the statement said, adding that with this collaboration along with the expansion of their existing Ludhiana facility, Hero will be able to meet its demand of manufacturing over one million EVs per year by 2022.
“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 utilize Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centres in the country,” Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric, said.
Mr. Munjal added that 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.
“The joint development efforts will also be a key factor in developing the platform approach to help electrification of the Peugeot Motocycles’ portfolio. This is expected to bring significant value to both parties through optimisation of costs, timelines, and shared knowledge in this dynamic, fast growing global EV environment,” they added.
“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,” Rajesh Jejurikar, ED, Auto & Farm Sectors, M & M Ltd., said.
Mr Jejurikar added that the company’s R&D Centre in India will be integral to this arrangement as will the manufacturing facility at Pitampur that already supplies Peugeot with EV products.
The two companies would create a seamless channel of communication to aid knowledge sharing among the R&D teams to build new products and technologies. This will be done keeping the Indian and global markets in mind that will not just further the growth of electric vehicles, but also go on to set benchmarks for faster adoption in the industry, it said.
