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Oct 19, 2023

Hero VIDA

Hero Vida sales have not really kicked-off the way the company would have

Hero Vida sales have not really kicked-off the way the company would have wanted. I discuss the problems that marred its prospects…

So, Hero MotoCorp – India's largest selling 2-wheeler manufacturer ventured in the electric space with a new brand – VIDA! The Vida has debuted with V1 electric scooter along with its variants. Hero commenced dispatches and deliveries of the V1 around December 2022. Let us quickly see how is Hero's maiden entry in this space going after about five months of being in the market…

So, as you can see, Hero has sold 1730 units of the scooter in five months which is a very disappointing number of less than 350 units a month. Generally, sales/dispatches in the initial few months are high because of the marketing hype that is created. And even if we consider that Hero was being very cautious since it is a brand new tech and was releasing limited units – 350 a month is a dismal figure!

Just for reference country's largest selling electric 2-wheeler Ola S1 registered total sales of 21,882 units in one single month of April 2023, according to FADA. Even if we talk about legacy makers, Chetak registered 4546 units and iQube did 6227 units in one single month of April 2023.

Now that clearly means that there is something wrong with Hero Vida. What's that…?

The lesson has been learnt. The writing on the wall has come true and Hero has corrected V1's price by about Rs 25,000 which is over 15 percent of the initially announced tag. The question, then, is – why wasn't ~1.20-1.30 Lac the launch price of V1? The problem here is that – there is a word that gets spread – ‘Because of no/less sales, Hero has announced a price cut‘! And that is an image problem that is very hard to do away with!

The V1 may not have been the correct strategy to approach a brand new segment but there is a lot that lies ahead on this front from India's giant maker. Hero had inked deals with Taiwanese Gogoro as well as America's Zero – both of which should yield many interesting products and technologies in the near future. And with Hero planning to add about 100 cities to V1's reach, sales should improve.

It is already doing well with its subsidiary Ather but going will not be tough with arch-rival Honda announcing its entry in this segment. And with a not so nice start, it is always difficult to climb back.

What do you think – will Hero fight back and be the topmost seller in electric vehicle space as well…?