Hero MotoCorp's Vida branded electric scooters launched at Rs. 1.45 lakh

Nearly nine months after announcing its plans to foray into the electric two-wheelers under the Vida sub-brand, Hero MotoCorp launches its maiden e-scooter in two variants -- V1 Plus at Rs. 1,45,000 and V1 Pro at Rs 1,59,000 (including subsidy cuts). While the bookings for this model will commence from October 10, deliveries will kick off in the second week of December.

The Vida-branded e-scooters, which have been developed at the Hero Global Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT) in Rajasthan, in association with Hero Tech Centre in Germany, will be available in three cities – Delhi, Bangalore, and Jaipur to start. It will be positioned against Ather 450X, TVS iQube, Bajaj Chetak, and Ola S1.

Both get a 7-inch touchscreen, smartphone connectivity, SOS button, keyless ignition, 6 kW power output and removable batteries.

“We could have launched our electric two-wheelers in the past, but we had to get it right," Pawan Munjal, Chairman, and Managing Director, of Hero MotoCorp said while unveiling the model. He added, "What was shown (during the launch) was best-in-class in terms of specifications, performance, and everything else. It is clearly value for money. It is loaded with features, and every feature costs money. We are starting with a premium product. It doesn't mean that we won’t have a more affordable product in terms of pricing."

While the Vida V1 Plus will have a 3.44 kWh lithium-ion battery pack,  the Vida V1 Pro gets a larger 3.94 kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

Hero MotoCorp has launched their electric vehicle brand Vida. And this is their first scooter under the Vida brand - V1. Available in two variants, V1 Plus and V1 Pro which cost RS 1.45 lakh and Rs 1.59 lakh, respectively (ex-showroom).

The Vida V1 scooter would be available in three ride modes- Eco, Ride, and Sports and will have a top speed of 80 kmph. The company claims that V1 Pro will offer an IDC range of 165 km and 0-40 kmph time of 3.2 seconds and the V1 Plus has an IDC-claimed range of 143km and can hit 0-40 kmph in 3.4 seconds.

The company is also working on swappable batteries for these  and upcoming models.

Meanwhile, Hero's Vida V1 electric scooters will be built at the company's  manufacturing facility at Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, which is spread over 600 acres and were also making petrol-driven two-wheelers.

Even though Munjal didn't share production target for this model, he maintained that it has put up 'modular manufacturing' processes and hence can keep adding modules as demand and production ramp up.

"Our immediately priority is not to garner huge volumes . We will ramp up gradually,” he added.

A  source privy to the company's plans revealed that nearly one lakh units of both the launch models will be churned out from its AP facility during the next calendar year.  The same source revealed that nearly 1,200 people are employed at the plant out of which one fourth of the workforce are dedicated towards building EVs.

The company is also aiming to commence “Our aim is not to focus on high volumes for EVs right away. We will ramp up gradually,” he added.exports to Europe during the first quarter of next calendar year, as per the same source.