 "Hero's Vida V2 launch intensifies competition in sub-Rs 1 lakh EV market")
The country’s largest two-wheeler maker, Hero MotoCorp, is all set to intensify competition in the already crammed sub-Rs 1 lakh segment of electric two-wheeler with its new offering Vida V2.
As of October, Hero’s market share in electric two-wheeler space was just 5.25 per cent.
Its retail market share has grown month-on-month this year, from 1.46 per cent in April to 5.34 per cent in August. September was an outlier with 4.78 per cent share, but it picked up again in the festival period (5.25 per cent).
Data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) showed that electric two-wheeler sales have also grown from 65,554 units in April to 1,39,159 units in October at a retail level.
Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in November that the Vida is now seeing a much better acceptance in many markets with a market share of 20 per cent in four cities (Kolkata/Mysore/Bhilwara/Cuttack) and the same at 10 per cent market share in 10 cities.
Overall, the Vida market share now stands at 5.4 per cent.
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“HMC targets to launch affordable EV variants by FY25 end. It would also launch new EV scooters in FY26. The company is currently in the development stage of a middle-weight performance oriented electric motorcycle in partnership with Zero Motorcycles,” the analyst had added.
Hero is thus trying to increase the volumes further by launching a more affordable electric two-wheeler Vida V2 starting at Rs 96000 which is an evolution of the V1 range that Hero launched earlier.
The two-wheeler is available in three variants starting Rs 96000 and going up to Rs 135,000. It will sport battery packs ranging from 2.2kwh to 3.94kwh.
Hero’s Vida V2 competes with the TVS iQube 2.2 and Bajaj Chetak 2903 models, in terms of price and battery capacity.
Niranjan Gupta, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hero MotoCorp, said, “The launch of the VIDA V2, with variants across price segments, represents a significant milestone in our EV journey.”
The Vida V2 will have option for removable batteries, top speed of 90 km per hour and features like keyless entry, cruise control, and custom riding modes etc. The removable battery packs can be conveniently charged at home, reaching 80 per cent capacity in under six hours. In addition to standard home chargers, V2 customers have access to an expansive VIDA fast-charging network with over 3100 charging points across 250 cities in India. The Vida V2 will run up to 165km for a single full charge
Rising competition
Competition in the electric scooter market has been heating up with several players launching scooters in this space.
Bajaj Auto launched the most affordable of its Chetak (e-scooter) model Chetak 2901 priced competitively in June as its peers have also introduced more affordable e-scooters in recent months. Bajaj’s peers like Ola, Ather and TVS have scooters priced competitively. Ola had recently reduced the price of the S1X (4kwh) to Rs 70,000, Ather introduced its family scooter Rizta at a starting price of Rs 1.1 lakh, and the TVS iQube starts at Rs 1.1 lakh.
Players with deep pockets
Industry experts feel that big two-wheeler majors are now turning their attention to the sub Rs 1 lakh segment in e-scooters, and have already garnered an 80 per cent share of this segment, improving from a 50-60 per cent share they had about a year back.
Rakesh Sharma, executive director, Bajaj Auto had told Business Standard earlier that the top five players have started to “attack” the sub Rs 1 lakh price point too. At the same time, he added that there were already a lot of smaller players (and still some) who were operating at this price point of sub Rs 1 lakh. Their market shares have shrunk with the entry of the big guys.
“The split earlier was 50:50 (between sub Rs 1 lakh and the more expensive scooters), and now too it remains similar; just that the top five players now have 80 per cent of the market, whereas one year back, they were only 50-60 per cent of this market,” he had said.