After iSmart, Hero is gearing up for more launches, says Munjal

Hero MotoCorp has launched its first in-house developed motorcycle Splendor iSmart, in 110 cc segment and it is priced at Rs 53,300. The new bike has been developed at the Centre for Innovation and Technology (CIT). "There is a lot of work going on at CIT. Followed by iSmart, we are gearing up for more launches for this festive season," said Pawan Munjal, the Chairman, MD & CEO of Hero MotoCorp.     The automobile sector that saw a sluggish market growth will see some improvement in the second half of FY17,he said.Below is the verbatim transcript of Pawan Munjal’s interview to Shweta Kothari on CNBC-TV18. Q: How significant is Splendor iSmart launch for Hero MotoCorp? A: This only goes to show that there is a lot of work going on at CIT and followed by this motorcycle there will be a lot more launches starting with the festive season this year. Thereafter going into the next quarters. Q: In terms of volume what are your targets and also the export targets for the coming months ahead? A: We definitely expect to grow overall. We are coming out of very sluggish market situation for the automobile sector generally, four wheelers, two wheelers, the commercial vehicles. Of late we have seen some improvement in the market. Going forward as Ashok had earlier mentioned the second half of the fiscal should definitely be better than the first half while we are now experiencing good rains, we expect the monsoons to work for the market, to work for the sentiment of the market. The seventh pay commission, while it is not equivalent to what we got in the earlier pay commission which is the sixth pay commission definitely all these things will improve the sentiment, will improve numbers. So, overall we are looking at growth both in the domestic as well as the global markets.