Hero MotoCorp and America's Harley Davidson have extended their existing collaboration, and are planning to develop and manufacture a new motorcycle for Indian as well as global markets, the company said in an exchange filing on December 27.
Both the two-wheeler majors also decided to expand the X440 motorcycle range in India into new variants, in an effort to win the market share in the premium segment. Hero Moto's premium portfolio includes brands like Vida, Harley, Mavrick, Karizma, Xpulse and Xtreme. The company has in the past said that it plans to open up to 100 Premia stores.
Hero Moto has been building its two-wheeler portfolio since last year, including plans for ICE and EV scooters. CEO Niranjan Gupta had in FY24 said that Hero Moto will aim to 'grow exponentially' in the premium portfolio across ICE as well as EVs. During the September quarter earnings call, the management said it will now focus on brand building and launch new model over next six months.
Harley Davidson had in 2020 agreed to hand over sales, service and distribution of its products to Hero MotoCorp, after deciding to exiting about 40 markets where volumes were low, not warranting investments. Harley's closure of India operations in September 2020 came after 11 years of underperformance, which saw the company sell only 25,000 units in total.
Hero MotoCorp and Harley Davidson are comparable in annual turnover with Hero Moto's FY24 sales at Rs 37,455 crore, and H-D's CY23 turnover at $5.84 billion. In November, Hero Moto improved its Vahan market share to 31.6%, riding on strong festive period demand.
On a YTD basis, shares of Hero Moto are higher by 3%.
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