Hero Electric and Mahindra Group announced a strategic pact in the electric vehicle space. As part of the partnership, Mahindra Group will manufacture Hero Electric’s most popular electric bikes — Optima & NYX — at their Pithampur plant, in Madhya Pradesh in order to meet the growing demands of the market.

With this collaboration, along with the expansion of its existing Ludhiana facility, Hero will be able to meet its demand of manufacturing over 1 million EVs per year by 2022.

"To further deepen its roots and strengthen the leadership, Hero Electric has announced a partnership with the Mahindra Group, which is leading the EV transition in the electric three and four wheelers space,” Hero Electric MD Naveen Munjal noted.

This coming together of two industry leaders is to further enhance the manufacturing capabilities to meet demand and utilise Mahindra Group’s robust supply chain to reach newer centers in the country, he added.

"The long-term partnership will also see both the companies make the most out of each other’s deep knowledge of EVs and drive new product development in the next few years,” Munjal said.

He noted that the company looks forward to creating more synergies with the Mahindra Group in the near future.

"The joint development efforts will also be a key factor in developing the platform approach to help electrification of the Peugeot Motocycles’ portfolio. This is expected to bring significant value to both parties through optimization of costs, timelines, and shared knowledge in this dynamic, fast growing global EV environment,” Munjal stated.

"This strategic partnership will bolster these efforts through joint development and a platform sharing approach leveraging the combined strengths of the two businesses,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, Executive Director, Auto & Farm Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra.

The company’s R&D Centre in India will be integral to this arrangement as will the manufacturing facility at Pithampur, which already supplies Peugeot with EV products, he added.