Hero Electric, Mahindra ink pact to collaborate in EV space

PTI, Jan 19, 2022, 1:14 PM IST

New Delhi: In a significant development, Hero Electric and Mahindra Group on Wednesday announced a strategic pact in the electric vehicle space.

As part of the partnership, Mahindra Group will manufacture Hero Electric’s most popular electric bikes — Optima & NYX — at their Pithampur plant, in Madhya Pradesh to meet the growing demands of the market, the companies said in a joint statement.

With this collaboration, along with the expansion of its existing Ludhiana facility, Hero will be able to meet its demand of manufacturing over 1 million EVs per year by 2022.

”To further deepen its roots and strengthen the leadership, Hero Electric has announced a partnership with the Mahindra Group, which is leading the EV transition in the electric three and four wheelers space,” Hero Electric MD Naveen Munjal noted.

This coming together of two industry leaders is to further enhance the manufacturing capabilities to meet demand and utilise Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centers in the country, he added.

”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,” Munjal said.

He noted that the company looks forward to creating more synergies with the Mahindra Group in the near future.

”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 optimization of costs, timelines, and shared knowledge in this dynamic, fast growing global EV environment,” Munjal stated.

”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,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto & Farm Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra.

The company’s R&D Centre in India will be integral to this arrangement as will the manufacturing facility at Pithampur, which already supplies Peugeot with EV products, he added.

Mahindra Group owns France-based Peugeot Motocycles (PMTC).

”I see significant value creation on a mutually beneficial basis and look forward to this partnership delivering on its obvious promise,” Jejurikar noted.

The two companies will create a seamless channel of communication to aid knowledge sharing among the R&D teams to build new products and technologies, the partners stated.

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, they added.