[VinodDevil81]

The HX250 project has been shelved by Hero as the company thinks that it won't be feasible anymore to launch anything in the 250cc segment.
Quoting from the source article from Motorbeam-

Launch plans of the HX250 have been shelved by Hero as the automaker intends to focus on 300cc and above segments.
After almost 2 years since the unveil at the last Auto Expo, Hero has confirmed that the HX250 will not be launched in India as the company feels the 250cc segment has more or less disappeared and moved to 300cc and even larger displacements.

Pathetic to say the least!
Again, by the time they come up with a 300cc prototype, the market would have moved to 600cc!

Company thinks 250 cc segment disappeared?
Can't blame them.In Hero'e eyes, other than the 100cc, no other segment actually exists.

It is such a shame that the company which has got such huge resources, market-share & service network could not even come up with a proper production version of a 250 cc bike, even after these many years of parting ways with Honda.
Not a single worthwhile engine or product in motorcycle category to claim their own, without using the Honda derived engines!
All of Hero's concepts are just toys only.They never make it to production and are just meant for display at the auto shows.

But Hero is not really bothered about all these, as long as they are at the top in terms of total sales.
But how long will they hang on to the splendor and its 100cc derivatives like this?

What is the point in being No.1 if you can't even follow others in terms of innovation, technology, product line-up and upgrades?

Their EBR partnership hasn't contributed anything worthwhile to their product line-up.
Infact some of their later products like the ZMR, began to look worse after the EBR partnership.

Karizma is the biggest engine that has ever come out from their stables and that was way back in 2003.
Nothing was launched above that 223 cc capacity in these 14 years!
See where Bajaj and other competitors have reached in terms of innovation and product upgrades, during this time.
Even relatively newer players like Mahindra have shown greater interest in product innovation.

Hero should learn from Maruti how to be innovative, contemporary and modern in their product portfolio, while being the top seller at the same time.
If not, then by 2025 or so, Hero will just be known as the largest bicycle-manufacturer in India, and nothing more.

Source- Motorbeam

[Motard_Blr]

Hero has been a style over substance company for a long time. During their partnership with Honda, they learnt little in product development. When the partnership ended, Hero was left with nothing. A case of the emperor's new clothes. Today, Hero's bread and butter models still bring in revenue but for how long? With no product innovation, Hero has a bleak future.

What is clear to observers like us is that the management seem to have no idea on what to do. It's probably because they don't understand the products or the market that they sell to. Like car makers have a "car guy" at the head, Hero needs a "bike guy" at the top with a free hand to deliver. But is this something that the Munjal family will accept and allow? Appointing a professional manager at the top is something most family owned companies in India are highly resistant to.

What Hero now needs is their equivalent of the Pulsar - a middle capacity bike, with modern features and performance, a premium image and ideally, high margins. Hero also needs to spend some of their vast cash reserves on developing new models that are beyond just clothes jobs on existing models.

[rajshenoy]

I feel Hero lost all the R&D along with the honda badge. They spent a fortune in marketing their new identity instead of channelling the same on future product lines

Fast forward and here we have TVS and BAJAJ with their strategic partnerships and desirable premium products and hero seem to be so confused !!

Hero just seem to show off some half baked concepts just to keep the interests alive in the stock market with hardly any new launches !!

[naturaldisaster]

We should look at it from business point of view as well.

They have gigantic market share.
They dont need to keep upgrading technology to keep up with competition.
They didnt have to create engines, just carry over what they learnt from Honda
Customer will still buy the bikes whether they have the latest technology or not.
Young buyers are told by their elders that Hero Honda bikes are best even though there are bikes in the market which offer better FE.

I think they are fantastic at doing business.

[payeng]

Great. Guess the 600 cc Segment is Alive and ready to Kick.

How about the HASTUR??

[abhishek46]

In a country like ours, it will take two decades or more for the mass market to move to 300cc and above. And by the time that happens, electrics would have taken over.

Hero is happy with it's bread and butter 100cc and 125cc models.
When the world moves on to electrics, they will be in a comfortable position then too, as they already have few electric models in production.

Hence, business wise, this looks to be a sound decision.

[johny_desparado]

I don't know if it's only me or if there are others out there who think the same way as I do. I strongly believe that they need to change their brand name too. "Hero" does not sound right. Hero Honda did.
Alas, I don't feel excited to go out and buy a 250 cc bike from a brand named "Hero". Too Cheesy !

[VinodDevil81]

Originally Posted by johny_desparado

I don't know if it's only me or if there are others out there who think the same way as I do. I strongly believe that they need to change their brand name too. "Hero" does not sound right. Hero Honda did.

Alas, I don't feel excited to go out and buy a 250 cc bike from a brand named "Hero". Too Cheesy !

I partly agree with you that the name Hero is too plain jane for a manufacturer selling Motorcycles.
A 3 letter acronym like, say HMC (which stands for Hero MotoCorp itself) would have sounded much more substantial and professional, like KTM, BMW, TVS etc.
But right now that is not the real issue that Hero has been plagued with.
A mere name change won't make any change in their brand image as of now.

They are too laid back in their approach in updating their products,bringing in newer products or creating newer product segments/sub-segments.

They are so deeply immersed in their comfort-zone of being leaders in the entry-level segment, that they don't even like to follow others in matters of innovation and timely product and segment upgrades, according to the market trends and requirements.

As someone has said in the above post, from a business point of view, may be it makes perfect sense to the company.I agree.
But from an enthusiasts point of view, or even from an average biker's perspective, this company has already proved to be almost hopeless and good-for-nothing in terms of bringing in newer products and upgrading segments.

The young generation has almost given up the brand completely, due to lack of products and timely upgrades, and currently the Uncles/Aunties who buy Hero bikes are the ones who have some nostalgic memories of the erstwhile legendary Hero Honda products.
These customers don't have any desire to get updated engines and infact are very happy that they are getting the same engine that Honda had brought here 30 years ago, without any major changes in mileage or performance.
So hero's inability to upgrade the engines is not affecting their sales, mainly because of this reason itself.

But that will gradually change.
Without timely upgrades to newer engines & segments,they will start finding it difficult to sell, when the current generation of their target customers slowly becomes extinct.
When the young folks of today, become uncles tomorrow, they won't have any consideration for this brand.
A brand which never fascinated or impressed them when they were young is not going to be in their lists when they are old, too.

Having said that, each company has its own priorities and business model and we can't do anything about that.
But it makes me sad to see the company which pioneered the four-stroke performance motorcycling era in the country by launching the legendary CBZ, struggling to come up with even a 250cc bike in this day and age.

[Urban_Nomad]

What a surprise ... NOT

And there goes the Xpulse, just as many had predicted

No amount of curse words would suffice, what a shame, what a PATHETIC company. ZERO ambition, ZERO creativity

@Red_Liner - Where art thou?

[r0nit7]

The specs looked good on paper, the bike looked alright & there would have been the Hero badge akin to Maruti and had it been launched with a VFM price tag - just like the Dominar, the KTMs - it would have done decently well, 250cc engine or not.
May be they are too busy in launching the trillion'th special edition of the Splendor

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by VinodDevil81

Karizma is the biggest engine that has ever come out from their stables and that was way back in 2003.

And that too was a proper Honda. I believe it was Honda's CRF 230's engine which made its way to Karizma's bay. But the Hero's fairings [the lugs to be precise] used to break on its own.

Hero may be the biggest in terms of sales, profits etc, but they are yet to win a biker's heart post Karizma and maybe a bit with Impulse.

[timuseravan]

At this point they should just abandon the 150cc+ market and go full electric. They lost the lead they had with Karizma. With R&D just starting, a new bike launch will be atleast 2020 if not later. The next decade will be defined by the move to e Bikes. They can milk the "splendid" cow they have and be first movers in e Bike space.

[Vishnuk]

Originally Posted by Motard_Blr

What is clear to observers like us is that the management seem to have no idea on what to do. It's probably because they don't understand the products or the market that they sell to. Like car makers have a "car guy" at the head, Hero needs a "bike guy" at the top with a free hand to deliver. But is this something that the Munjal family will accept and allow? Appointing a professional manager at the top is something most family owned companies in India are highly resistant to.

They did appoint Dr.Markus as the head of their R&D team sometime in 2014. He comes with R&D experience in BMW & BMW Motorrad and he is known to be a biker. They have also been participating the Dakar Rally with RR 450, which is now been upgraded again. So in all probability, he has been doing something behind the scenes. But whether he has a free hand on not, is something which is open to interpretation.

But I agree that they have not been as innovative as Bajaj or even TVS. They had much better resources and should have been the first ones to have come out with good motorcycles. It looks they are more intent on keeping their market share, for which so far they have not been required to release new engines. They have been releasing models, with new stickers , paint jobs & panels all along, with the same engines from the time their partnership with Honda ended. But if you look at the market share, they are still no.1, so it probably has been making business sense for them.

In my opinion I wouldn't write them off, they have an acute business sense and would probably come up with something sooner or later.

[am1m]

My first reaction was one of derision too. 'Ha, so what else is new!' 'Typical Hero.'

But then, thinking about it, I realized that Hero has focused on their market and done really well there. Look at the sales figures and it becomes obvious that while we bike enthusiasts (me included) will always want bigger, more powerful and sexier rides, we hardly buy enough in the Indian market for a bike manufacturer to invest crores in development or to acquire the technology to make such bikes and then the additional investment to allow customers to get the service needed to keep those bikes running.

Everytime I go on a long ride, I wish the brand of bike I ride had as many service centers as a Hero. I've seen them in small towns everywhere, whereas the brand of bike I use for long rides can't even do a decent service in the metro city I live in!

The other brand of bike that I own, I use in the city and that brand has been called 'innovative' because they keep pushing newer models out and keep investing in bigger engine tech. But after just 50k km of moderate city riding and not missing a single service, it's obvious that the quality of parts used is sub-standard, the overall bike quality is shoddy and I'll have to junk the bike in a couple of years or learn to live with a sub-par ride. Whereas, my friend's dad still rides the Splendour that my friend used in college, 20 years ago!

So yeah, I too wish Hero would come out with a sexy, affordable 300, 600, 900cc, (especially for the Impulse!), backed up with a great service network. But they run a business and as far as I can see, the majority of the market wants those bikes as posters on the wall and in photos, but does not want to buy those bikes and will not want those sorts of bikes for the foreseeable future.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by payeng

Great. Guess the 600 cc Segment is Alive and ready to Kick.

How about the HASTUR??

Forget 600cc, Hero can never make a proper 150cc performance machine.

I came across a Youtube video by a vlogger on Hastur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgNEanSABQc

Its a bit funny and his views to a great extent are believable.

Like Fiat is to Cars, Here is to Bikes. Neither really seem to have a R&D wing.