After ending its 27 year old collaboration with Japanese auto giant Honda in 2010, Hero MotoCorp has been working on strengthening its research and development functions. The results of this strengthening is likely to become apparent in the slew of product refreshes that the world's largest two wheeler maker (by volume) will launch in the coming months. Hero MotoCorp has lined up three major technologies that it will first deploy on the likes of the Splendor, Pleasure and the CBZ Xtreme. These technologies are said to have been developed in-house by Hero MotoCorp.

Start-Stop System

Dubbed the i3S, an acronym for idle start-stop system, Hero MotoCorp plans to deploy this technology in the big volume Splendor commuter motorcycle. Eventually, the start-stop system will be made available across Hero MotoCorp's entire two wheeler range. The start-stop system shuts off the engine after a preset amount of idle time. Restarting the engine will happen seamlessly thorough twisting of the throttle. The technology's focus is to cut down fuel consumption and tail pipe emissions at traffic lights and in stop-go traffic conditions. 

Integrated Braking System

The combined braking system (CBS) or integrated braking system (IBS), as Hero MotoCorp chooses to call it, involves the simultaneous braking of both wheels of a two wheeler. For instance, applying the front/rear brake of a two wheeler equipped with CBS/IBS will result in braking happening at both wheels. Honda introduced this technology to India with the new Activa 110 and ever since, has added CBS to its other scooters. Hero MotoCorp plans to deploy this technology on its Pleasure automatic scooter, a product that shares its engine and transmission with the previous generation Honda Activa. 

Engine Immobilizer

Hero MotoCorp will introduce the engine immobilizer on the CBZ Xtreme 150 cc motorcycle. The engine immobilizer is a theft-deterrence system that's standard on most modern day cars. It involves a key that is code matched to an engine's starting system. So, the insertion of a different key to unlock/start the car/two wheeler will result in the starting system not responding as the circuit controlling the starting mechanism will disable power to the electric/kick starter. Like the start-stop system, the engine immobilizer could become standard on all Hero MotoCorp two wheelers in the coming months. 

Source TheEconomicTimes

Indian two wheeler giant Hero MotoCorp is on a global expansionist spree of sorts. The world's largest two wheeler maker by volumes, is targeting sales of close to 3 million two wheelers from international markets by 2017. To achieve this number, the Indian company is establishing bases in emerging markets across the world.

The latest port of call for Hero MotoCorp is the South American nation of Peru. Hero MotoCorp has tied up with local partner MOTOCORP S.A.C for its Peruvian operations. Hero MotoCorp will sell 7 two wheeler models in Peru. This line up will be sold through 85 dealerships at the outset, with more retail outlets to be set up in due course of time.

The Pleasure automatic scooter, Passion Pro 110cc commuter, the Glamour 125cc executive commuter, the Hunk 150cc sporty commuter, the Thriller 150cc on-off roader, the Karizma R and the Karizma ZMR sportsbikes, are the products that will be sold in Peru. After exiting its joint venture with Japanese two wheeler giant Honda, Hero MotoCorp can now operate in any global market. 

Previously, Hero could sell its motorcycles only in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. The unfettered access, now available to Hero MotoCorp has seen it launching motorcycles and scooters in various countries of the world in Latin America and Africa. Apart from Peru, Hero MotoCorp has launched its motorcycle range in Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. 

Hero MotoCorp has also begun selling motorcycles in Africa, with an assembly facility at Kenya. The two wheeler maker has also launched its motorcycle range in other African nations such as Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast. Hero MotoCorp aims to sell 5 crore motorcycles a year by 2020, a number that could help it stave off the volumes leadership threat from Honda. 

It has been three years since Hero MotoCorp (then Hero Honda) parted ways with long term joint venture (JV) partner Honda. While Hero MotoCorp has largely managed to hold on to market share, Honda has made no bones of its intention to displace Hero MotoCorp from the top of the hustings by 2020. Honda aims to sell 1 million two wheelers/year in India by 2020. Hero MotoCorp, after announcing its 1 Billion USD worth export push a while ago, has now unveiled its plans to overcome the growing threat from Honda. 

The first cog in Hero MotoCorp's strategy of boosting volumes is closely aligned to the Indian festive season, which has just kicked off. The Indian two wheeler maker, and the world's largest one by volumes, will launch no less than a dozen new products over the next two quarters. Hero MotoCorp has not revealed the exact details of these products. So, it is too early to fathom whether these products would be refreshed variants or all new models. Past experience points to the former approach. 

The motorcycle maker has already established assembly facilities at Africa and in the coming years, a new assembly line at Mexico will be added. The assembly units abroad, are intended to help Hero MotoCorp achieve its target of bagging 10% of its sales from international markets by 2017. Until the expiry of its joint venture with Honda, Hero was precluded from selling its products in international markets other than Nepal and Sri Lanka. Now though, the whole world is Hero's playground, given the termination of the Hero-Honda JV. 

Hero plans to more than double its current turnover of 24,000 crore rupees, to 60,000 crore rupees, by the year 2020. To achieve this seemingly huge number, Hero plans to sell 5 crore two wheelers by 2020. Incidentally, the two wheeler major just rolled out its 50 millionth (5 crore) two wheeler yesterday. To sell this massive number of two wheelers, Hero MotoCorp plans to double the number of its assembly units, to 20. By 2020, Hero plans to produce 12 million (1.2 Crore) two wheelers each year, from 20 assembly lines at Indian and international locations. . 

From the projected numbers, it is clear that Hero MotoCorp is looking to retain its dominance of the global two wheeler market by dint of sheer volumes. The two wheeler maker has also revealed an approach similar to that of Bajaj Auto: A focus on EBITDA margins. Hero MotoCorp is aiming at a 20% EBITDA margin, an industry leading figure and a number similar to what Bajaj Auto consistently manages. On the whole, Hero MotoCorp's new vision revolves around leading the market in terms of both volumes as well as profitability. 

With an aim to sell its two wheelers in over 50 countries across the globe by 2020, Hero MotoCorp's lofty ambitions would need to be backed up by excellent products. While the two wheeler major has tied up with technology providers such as Erik Buell Racing, Ricardo and AVL, the first products featuring the new (non-Honda) engines will roll out only next year. It will be interesting to see how the market responds to the newly developed engines on Hero MotoCorp's commuter motorcycle range. 

The Indian two wheeler giant has also announced plans of building 100% made-in-India products (read, engineered) over the next few years. The company has been shoring up its research and development wing, a division previously restricted to cosmetic facelifts when Hero was in a joint venture with Honda. While results are yet to show, the next few years promise to be interesting as Hero and Honda will be locked in a battle for volume supremacy in India, a country that will soon become the undisputed world leader in terms of two wheeler volumes.

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. 

The world's largest two wheeler maker by volumes, Hero MotoCorp, has announced that it will buy a 49.2% stake in Erik Buell Racing (EBR), a company founded and owned by Erik Buell, a former engineer at Harley Davidson. Hero MotoCorp's US subsidiary will take a stake in EBR. The remaining 50.8% stake will be held by Mr Buell and his wife. 

EBR's 49.2% stake is being sold to Hero MotoCorp for a sum of 25 million US dollars. Of this, Hero's US subsidiary has already paid 15 million USD and the rest of the amount will be paid to Erik Buell Racing in nine months from now. The remaining 10 million USD will be paid by Hero MotoCorp's US subsidiary in a single shot. 

Hero MotoCorp is already in a technology sourcing partnership with Erik Buell Racing, in an agreement that was signed last year. Erik Buell Racing is said to be developing powerful, high end motorcycles for Hero MotoCorp. The first of such high performance motorcycles will be launched over the next few years. 

Apart from Erik Buell Racing, Hero MotoCorp has technology sourcing tie ups with AVL Austria and Riccardo. Also, the Indian two wheeler giant is investing more in its domestic R&D operation as it gears up to take on the mounting competition from the likes of Honda and Bajaj Auto. 

The first crop of Hero MotoCorp motorcycles, based on an all new platform (minus technology sourced from Honda) will hit the Indian market by 2014. Hero is also looking to aggressively scale up its footprint across the world, especially in emerging markets of Africa and South America. 

Hero MotoCorp wants its next big wave of growth to come from exports, an area that it hasn't traditionally been strong in, due to the non-compete agreement with Honda during the times when Hero was in the Hero Honda joint venture. With Hero and Honda now going separate ways in India, the Indian two wheeler giant has the opportunity for exploring unexplored markets. 

Recently, Hero MotoCorp launched its motorcycle range in Latin American countries. In the coming years, the two wheeler company hopes to set up assembly operations in Latin America and Africa, a move that is expected to give it attractive cost benefits and pricing power.  

Hero MotoCorp isn't the only Indian two wheeler maker to take a stake in a foreign motorcycle maker. Bajaj Auto has a stake of over 49% in Austrian motorcycle maker KTM. The Bajaj-KTM partnership has seen the launch of interesting motorcycles such as the Duke 200 and 390 in India. Technology from KTM has filtered onto the Bajaj Pulsar range through the 200 NS model. 

TVS Motors is also in an alliance with BMW Motorrad, to jointly develop high performance motorcycles that are affordable too. Like the Bajaj-KTM duo, BMW and TVS Motors have plans of leveraging the low cost-high quality manufacturing strength of India, to build motorcycles. These motorcycles will be sold in India and other markets across the globe. 

 Source Reuters

It would be an understatement to say that Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest two wheeler maker by volumes is finding the going tough. Honda is targeting Hero MotoCorp's bread and butter entry level motorcycle range with the Dream series of 110cc commuters while Bajaj Auto is playing both ends of the market with a slew of new launches that include Discover commuter motorcycles and new motorcycles in the Pulsar series. Amid all this, Hero MotoCorp has seen its market share being chipped away. Even as it looks to export markets to hold on to its volumes, Hero MotoCorp has registered a big month in May 2013. 

The Indian two wheeler major has embarked upon a fightback and the initial results seem encouraging. In a gloomy market, Hero MotoCorp seems to be getting the equation right as it has managed to dispatch 557,890 units of two wheelers to dealerships across the country, the brand's highest ever dispatch for any month ever. Retail sales too are strong at 1.1 million units for April and May taken together, the highest ever two month sales for the company, excluding the figures clocked during the festive seasons. Hero MotoCorp attributes this success to the recently rolled out 5 year warranty scheme on all its two wheelers. 

The 5 year warranty scheme by Hero MotoCorp is an industry leading measure, and the brand has been carrying out a widely advertised campaign across media outlets to drive home the point. The coming months could prove to be happy tidings for Hero MotoCorp as the weatherman reports a good monsoon. A big chunk of two wheeler sales, especially those of commuter motorcycles, comes from the Indian hinterland, a part of the country which is highly dependent on agriculture and allied activities. With most of India being rain fed, a good monsoon is closely aligned with the fortunes of the Indian hinterland.

Good monsoons usually see higher off take of consumer durables such as motorcycles and Hero MotoCorp, being the largest player in the country with an unparalleled reach in rural India stands to gain the most. The competition though, is intensifying as Honda is establishing more dealerships in semi-urban and rural parts of India. In a country where the Honda brand name is synonymous with quality and durability, Hero MotoCorp does have its task cut out. Hero MotoCorp has tied up with Erik Buell Racing, AVL Austria and Riccardo for developing new motorcycles while it has pushed into Central America by launching motorcycles in Guatemala, El Salvado and the Honduras. 

Hero MotoCorp Ltd (HMCL), has launched its ‘Hero’ two-wheeler range in Guatemala City, El Salvador and Honduras.

The two wheeler maker has partnered with Indy Motos Group of Guatemala who will be the authorized distributor for Hero two wheelers.

The Hero MotoCorp products that will be available here are, Hunk, Karizma, Glamour, HF Dawn, Splendor NXG, Super Splendor and Achiever motorcycles. 

The launch is significant for Hero, as this is the first of the new international markets that it is starting operations in. The Central and Latin American markets are expected to play a major role in Hero's global expansion plans.

HMCL has stated that it is targeting 10 % of total sales volumes from Latin & Central America and Africa over the next 4 to 5 years. At present exports are limited to a few countries, including Colombia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Entering and succeeding in foreign markets will be important for Hero MotoCorp as sales have been declining in the domestic market. HMCL has seen sales come down (along with Bajaj) for FY 13 to 53,62,730 units compared to 56,28,513 units in 2011-2012.

Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, announces India's first-ever warranty of 5 years on its entire two-wheeler product range.

The warranty coverage is for 5 years / 70,000 km on motorcycles and 5 years / 50,000 km on scooters. 

Hero MotoCorp currently has over 5,000 customer touch points across the country including authorized dealerships, workshops, spare part outlets and authorized representatives of dealers. 

The Economic Times reports that Honda Motorcycle & Scooters India will launch a new 100-110 cc motorcycle (codenamed K23) based on its Dream series of motorcycles. The bike is based on the Dream Yuga platform and will hit the market in the coming months. 

Honda is going straight for erstwhile partner Hero's jugular with its new bike that will offer Honda quality, aggressive pricing and high fuel economy, in its quest to knock Hero's Splendor family off the best selling pedestal.

Honda is likely to charge only a small premium over Hero's offerings in the same segment. Between the newly launched model and its Dream Yuga, Honda is targeting a total of 1.2 million units in the coming fiscal (Honda is targeting total sales of 3.93 million units in FY14). Honda has already said that it aspires to become the No. 1 two-wheeler company in India by 2015-2016.

Despite its age, Hero's Splendor range sold 1.8 Lakh motorcycles in October last year; the nearest competition was from Bajaj's Discover family which sold 1.52 Lakh units. In the first seven months of fiscal year 2013, Splendor sales were at 1.4 million units. Bajaj launched its Discover 100T motorcycle in January 2013 to target the entry-level segment with sales of 50,000 units a month being planned.