[JayPrashanth]

Link to News Section

Indian auto giant Hero MotoCorp is the world's largest two wheeler maker by volumes and has been striking out on its own for the past couple of years after terminating its joint venture with Japanese automaking giant Honda. The 27 year old joint venture, signed in 1983, ran all the way up to 2010, when Hero's Board agreed to buy out Honda's stake. Honda will allow Hero MotoCorp to use its engine technology on the latter's motorcycles until 2014.



Note: The Hero Splendor 100cc motorcycle shown in this report is illustrative in nature.

With an eye on the future, Hero MotoCorp has managed to develop three new engines that will replace Honda's motors on a multitude of Hero motorcycles including best sellers such as the Splendor and the Passion. According to a report on the TimesOfIndia, the three, newly developed engines come with capacities of 100cc, 110cc and 250cc. Hero's major volumes spinners include the best selling Splendor, Passion and Dawn range of 100cc commuter motorcycles.

The new crop of 100cc and 110cc four stroke engines are expected to power these commuter motorcycles while the 250cc motor could power Hero's top end offerings such as the Karizma R and the Karizma ZMR. Hero MotoCorp has been working with a range of engine technology suppliers such as Ricardo, AVL Austria and Erik Buell Racing, in order to develop new products even as the Indian major goes about establishing an independent Research and Development wing.

However, it remains unclear as to whether the new crop of four stroke engines have been developed indigenously by Hero or whether they've been developed with inputs from Hero's technology partners. The 100cc engine is a vertically inclined unit and has been developed specifically with the Nigerian market in mind. It may be noted that Hero MotoCorp is aggressively targeting export markets across the world, with new markets in South America and Africa already playing host to Hero's motorcycle range.

When the Indian two wheeler major was in the Hero-Honda joint venture, terms of the agreement precluded Hero from selling its motorcycles in export markets apart from Nepal and Sri Lanka. With the joint venture now defunct, Hero is looking at export markets for a large chunk of its yearly volumes even as competition in the Indian two wheeler market has been hotting up with Bajaj Auto and Honda targeting Hero in various segments of the market.

The 110cc four stroke engine is expected to make an appearance on Hero MotoCorp's commuter motorcycle range from the festive season of 2014. A launch time frame for newly developed 250cc four stroke engine hasn't yet been revealed. Even so, the end of 2014 could mark a complete revamp of Hero MotoCorp's motorcycles range, given the expiry of Hero's technology sharing agreement with Honda.

[hellmet]

Well, this may not bode well for Hero. Even now with Honda's engines running their Hero motorcycles a lot of new bike buyers have been moving away from the brand fearing loss of reliability. If they start building their own engines then Hero will have to start from scratch to gain consumer confidence all over again.

[rahul4321]

What got me interested was these words by Mr. Pawan Munjal: Each of these engines perform much better than our existing engines, and they are very fuel-efficient, the efficiency being higher than any bike currently running on Indian roads,"
he said, adding that these would form the backbone of a majority of Hero's two-wheeler products

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/21472124.cms

Now if this is really true, I will be one of the happiest guys on earth. For years and years they have droned on making tiny changes to the 97.2 cc Honda mill of the HH CD100 and created the Splendor, Passion, Dawn, CD Deluxe and innumerable other "Plus" variants of all these motorcycles. Then they did the same with Honda's 125 cc engine, the 150 cc engine and the 225 cc engine.

If they have really developed 3 new engines entirely from scratch (which are not revamped Honda engines designed to beat their "patented technology" by exploiting some loophole), I will be really impressed. And if his claims of churning out higher efficiency than the Honda Engines is true, that would be the icicing on the cake (Although i have my own doubts about this as Honda knows better than others how to make a fuel efficient engine. It will take a lot to beat them at their own game).

Best of luck Hero! Here's hoping you do a Bajaj!

[rahul4321]

Originally Posted by hellmet

Well, this may not bode well for Hero. Even now with Honda's engines running their Hero motorcycles a lot of new bike buyers have been moving away from the brand fearing loss of reliability. If they start building their own engines then Hero will have to start from scratch to gain consumer confidence all over again.

You are right, but trust Hero not to advertise this particular fact that the engines the country has used for years are now being replaced for new ones completely being built up from scratch.

Go to any rural or semi-rural place in India and the people swear by the name of 'Splendor' without having any knowledge of whose engine is being used in the Splendor. By retaining the same basic shape of the bikes, they will fit the bikes with their new engine and only talk about 'improvements' of the new engine as compared to the old (like Splendor compared to Splendor + scenario etc) and not about the fact that this is a completely new engine altogether which shares nothing with the engine that they thought they are buying the bike for.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by rahul4321

words by Mr. Pawan Munjal: Each of these engines perform much better than our existing engines, and they are very fuel-efficient, the efficiency being higher than any bike currently running on Indian roads,"

The above statement does not do any good to Hero, esp in the short term. They are themselves creating a bad image for their current engines, though from Honda.

[snowmane]

Beating Honda in the game which they literally own is going to be a tough task, though Bajaj has really come a long way and is going to benefit a lot once hero starts rolling out its own machinery.

The whole scene is going to get very interesting to observe, we just might have another kinetic in the making if these things do not do well!!

[ahmad.007]

The new engines may be more powerful/efficient, but I doubt if they can reproduce the reliability and smoothness of a honda motor. I fear they may end up the Bajaj way.

[Mpower]

Lets see when it comes out.

Even Honda's own brand new engine in the Dream Yuga does not move the bar up that much higher than the 25 year old CD100.

[akshay4587]

I wish for an Impulse with a 250CC engine

[HammerHead]

Good to see they are starting somewhere.
I feel they should also invest in design. Almost every Hero bike is boring to look at and uninspiring!

Exceptions are Hunk, Ignitor & Maestro.

Originally Posted by saket77

The above statement does not do any good to Hero, esp in the short term. They are themselves creating a bad image for their current engines, though from Honda.

I don't agree with this. Do you remember iPhone 4S commercials? Listen to what Apple says about 4S in the end.

[Gansan]

I was thinking Hero will decline post the split with Honda, but I am not so sure now. Splendor seems to be a bigger brand than Honda right now. And in rural areas, buyers are unfazed and still call it Hero-Honda anyway!

I think I already saw a Passion model with a vertically inclined engine on their website.

[ku69rd]

Ahhh so Hero braces itself for its biggest test of its lifetime. Will be very interesting to see how their new engines will perform in lieu of their old ones. But why does all Indian manufacturers rush to AVL to get an engine designed & developed? Would there not be any other players to work with?

[rahul4321]

Originally Posted by rahul4321

What got me interested was these words by Mr. Pawan Munjal: Each of these engines perform much better than our existing engines, and they are very fuel-efficient, the efficiency being higher than any bike currently running on Indian roads,"
he said, adding that these would form the backbone of a majority of Hero's two-wheeler products

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...w/21472124.cms


Best of luck Hero! Here's hoping you do a Bajaj!

The first of the 3 engines is out! As expected; it is the 100 cc mill splashed on the first two pages of today's Times of India. The main tag line 'fuel economy higher than before'. The engine specifications arent out yet so we dont know exactly what the power figures are and the rpm range where it is delivered but extracting higher mileage than Honda's 100 cc mill would not have been an easy task! Reliability is an even bigger question mark right now