Interview with Sohinder Gill, Director-Corporate Affairs, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles and CEO- Global Business, Hero Eco

Hero Electric is part of the Naveen Munjal controlled Hero Eco Group which makes electric two wheelers. Based in Ludhiana, the Hero Electric plant can make 200 vehicles a day. Munjal started his company around 1999-2000 when he forayed into electric two wheelers. The journey for him has been painful, yet exciting. Painful because government incentives dried up for this sector a few years back, only to be revived in 2015. Munjal is however active in the global market after his group acquired UK-based Ultra Motors which opened the world to the western markets. Hero Eco Ltd controls the UK and German operations for electric vehicles. Headquarted out of London with a subsidiary in Berlin, it controls the Swiss and German markets. Hero Eco Inc controls the US operations for electric vehicles.

Sohinder Gill, Director-Corporate Affairs, Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles and CEO- Global Business, Hero Eco had told Motown India recently, “The journey has been very long and tardy. Around 2008, people used to simply grab electric vehicles. That time the US dollar was worth around Rs 45. Half of the components were imported and without subsidy dealers started buying the vehicles. Soon thereafter there were many dealers around the country for electric vehicles from all manufacturers. We realised that there were around 28 manufacturers of electric vehicles, of these a majority were dealers and the rest were serious players. But then later sales took a hit. Then the government came out with an adhoc subsidiary through MNRE which demonstrated more than enough that as soon as the government comes with a subsidy and the threshold price is changed, the volumes go two or three times higher. It became a very good case study for the government and for us to prove the point that there is a necessity of bringing down the prices of electric vehicles which manufacturers cannot do on their own”.

The worst period for Hero Electirc was unfortunately when the subsidy was withdrawn under MNRE. Electric two-wheeler sales dropped from 100,000 units in 2011-12 to 42,000 in 2012-13 and 21,000 in 2013-14. It will become difficult for us to survive if the NEMMP subsidies do not come soon." Good days may just have started for Hero Electric and the Hero Eco group as a whole.

Electric scooters suffered a lot in terms of sales in the last couple of years because of lack of incentives from the government. Can you briefly tell us how badly your company was hit and what were the numbers for the 2014-15 fiscal and the previous fiscal too?

The industry as a whole took  a nose dive after discontinuation of AFSTP scheme under MNRE in 2012. During this scheme Industry had touched 1 lakh units which was a good figure. However after the discontinuation of this scheme the industry came down to 20,000 units last year with major E Bike players stopping their operations. Although we continued to hold the No.1 position in the market, there were hardly any volumes and any worthwhile competition. Hero Electric is the only company that continued selling and servicing the products, including those of the competition, pan India during those tough times.

Here onward with implementation of NEMMP, we expect a major turn around in EV business, especially in electric 2 wheelers. We are all geared up to be the leading player in shaping up the electric mobility revolution in India and contribute the maximum in NEMMP vision of 6 million EVs on Indian Roads by 2020