Hero-Yamaha Joint Venture To Soon Roll Out E-cycle Motors

Hero Motors and Yamaha Motor Co. (Japan) had entered into an agreement in October 2021 to create a ‘Global E-Cycle Drive Unit company’ at Hero E-Cycle Valley in Ludhiana. We recently visited this campus, which also houses the manufacturing facility of HYM Drive Systems, where it was revealed that this facility is on course to start production of electric hub drive motors in phases by November 2022, with a capacity of a million units per annum. 

The 100-acre Hero E-Cycle Valley currently manufactures both conventional cycles and electric cycles for Global Cycle OEMs, along with cycle components like alloy rims, aluminum frames and handlebars.

Electric motors emanating from this joint venture will be used in Hero and Yamaha e-cycles and sold worldwide through its retail network. While currently Hero e-cycles source drive motors needed for its various products from China and Taiwan, it hopes to be able to reduce prices to the tune of at least eight percent once it integrates the electric motors into their product line up.

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Hero had earlier launched an e-cycle called the EHX20 under its Lectro range and was developed in collaboration with Yamaha’s Smart Power Vehicle Business Unit in Japan. The now discontinued cycle featured an imported mid-mounted motor made by Yamaha, while the e-cycle was manufactured in Hero’s Ghaziabad unit. Due to this, it carried an expensive price tag of Rs 1.3 lakh.

Since its inception in 2019, Hero e-Cycles has invested Rs 400 crore in developing the e-cycle valley and had mentioned that about Rs 600 crore more will be invested in the facility in two additional phases. Summing up, with the Joint Venture between Hero and Yamaha, not only will the cost of e-cycles reduce, but the reliability of their electric motors will also improve.