Pawan Munjal Makes 'Electric' Return To Hero MotoCorp Amid Vida Slump

On Jan. 31, Hero MotoCorp Ltd. announced a top-level reshuffle that saw the exit of its chief executive officer. But an arguably more significant development was buried in the deep-end of the exchange filing—almost a footnote.

"The EV & Emerging Mobility Business Unit (EMBU) will transition to a fully independent and empowered unit, effective Feb. 1, 2025, leading the EV revolution and next-generation mobility under the mentorship of Executive Chairman Dr. Pawan Munjal.

“As part of this strategic shift, the product development teams across EMBU, Hero Tech Centre Germany and Hero Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Jaipur will work in perfect synergy to deliver groundbreaking advancements and new industry benchmarks.”

That may just be the best thing to happen to Hero since its split with Honda in 2010, especially when its Vida EV brand is going nowhere.

Hero has entered the scooters market too late, an analyst, who has tracked India's automotive space since 2012, said. He requested anonymity since he isn’t authorised to discuss company-specific information.

In a market where Hero Honda and Honda's own two-wheeler unit—Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt. Ltd.—existed, Hero got labelled as a motorcycle brand and HMSI as a scooter brand. After all, to this day, they sell India's best-selling motorcycle (Splendor) and scooter (Activa), respectively.

The EV business is another opportunity for Munjal to make a mark in this segment, especially with respect to electric scooters, the analyst cited earlier said.

Yes, Hero MotoCorp’s EV sales nearly quadrupled in 2024, but they were a tenth of market leader Ola Electric Mobility Ltd. In fact, associate Ather Energy Ltd. sold nearly three times as much last year.

In January 2025, Vida’s sales stood at just 1,614 units, accounting for less than 2% of the monthly electric two-wheeler volumes. The company produces nearly 7,000 units every month.

According to two dealers NDTV Profit spoke with, Vida sales are limited due to limited supply and production. They get a monthly allotment of 50 units. Of the three EVs on sale—Vida V2 Pro, Vida V2 Plus and Vida V2 Lite—the mid-spec V2 Plus, priced at Rs 1.15 lakh, clocked the highest sales.

“The company has been very helpful so far (in terms of service, spares, etc.),” Vivek Pipara of Trademark Hero in Mumbai’s Chembur said. “More so in the case of warranty—a dealer cannot bear the cost of warranty alone. The company always steps in.”

NDTV Profit has emailed a questionnaire to Hero MotoCorp, seeking the company's inputs on the EV business. This story will be updated as and when they respond.

In 2024, electric two-wheelers in India surged past the million mark, accounting for more than 5% of the overall market for the second straight year. That’s seen as an inflection point globally for adoption of any new technology.

Munjal’s “return”, then, couldn’t have been timed better.

According to people aware of the matter, Hero MotoCorp has lined up 2-3 new EV models for launch in fiscal 2026. About half-a-dozen new vehicles are planned in the next couple of years, including an electric Splendor that’s been under-development at CIT Jaipur for nearly two years now.

Hero itself has announced plans to launch a dozen electric two-wheelers, without disclosing timelines or formats. The company wants to have an installed production capacity of over half-a-million units by 2027-28.

“One of my customers is a Swiggy delivery executive, who rides 200 km per day—using both battery-swapping and fast-charging stations,” Trademark Hero’s Pipara said. “Most buyers are either small traders in Navi Mumbai or Ghatkopar, who use it for 50-60 km daily, or parents who drop their children to school.”

That it has alliances with a couple of mature EV makers is an advantage.

The Splendor maker, by way of the Munjal family, has nearly 40% stake in IPO-bound Ather Energy Ltd., which itself is seeing a revival of sorts, ahead of a potential listing. That, along with Vida, gives India’s largest two-wheeler maker a 15% EV market share.

The analyst cited earlier believes that in the near-term, Munjal would cleave Hero’s strategy hereon—Ather aimed at the premium buyer and Vida at the mass-market.

Ather is an urban product, a proven product, that people trust for quality. Munjal would continue with the brand as is, the analyst said. With Vida, he would try to come up with something which is more mass market—like what he did with the Splendor.

The early signs of such a strategy are already in place.

The Vida was the first mass-market offering, by a mature two-wheeler maker, to get swappable batteries—a technology preferred by the gig ecosystem. The Ather has Ather Duo, which works as a fixed as well as portable charger for charging at home and at office.

With Zero Motorcycles, Hero MotoCorp is in advanced stages of developing a mid-size performance electric motorcycle.

“As far as EV motorcycles…we are developing in partnership with Zero Motorcycles…it will be coming in the middleweight segment,” Hero’s now outgoing CEO Niranjan Gupta had said during an analyst call after the company’s second-quarter earnings.

Hero had first invested in Zero in September 2022.