In a interview with the Hindu, the Managing Director and CEO of the country’s largest motorcycle manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp which ended its 2 decade long standing partnership with Honda Motorcycles talks about the future of Hero MotoCorp and strategic partnerships with different companies. Recently the company announced its technological partnership with US based Eric Bruell Racing (EBR) for high end performance motorcycles. The company also officially announced its entry into 2 the world of motorcycle racing with 2 teams.
Mr. Munjal also added that the technologies with EBR could be well incorporated into bikes of 200cc and above. He was also optimistic about filtering the same technology into commuter segment motorcycles, namely the 100cc bikes in which Hero MotoCorp currently plays a dominant market leader. The next financial year would be seeing Hero MotoCorp launch the current bikes with the EBR technology. Bikes on totally new platforms will head to the Indian market by 2013-14.
Hero MotoCorp, however doesn’t want to keep itself restricted to just 1 tie-up. Instead, it plans to have multiple tie-ups with different partners for different kinds of technology. Like it has the JV with EBR for high end bikes, it is working with AVL and Riccardo on developing engines. They also plan to bring in more technically competent personnel in other departments like styling. Hero MotoCorp is also pursuing development of 100-125cc engines at the in-house R&D with support from technology partners.
Source – BusinessLine
