Hero Electric woos petrol bike owners with attractive exchange offers

Hero Electric, country's largest manufacturer of electric scooters, has announced a programme to encourage existing owners of petrol two-wheelers to switch to electric scooters.

"Hero is offering flat Rs 6,000 over and above the market value of such two wheelers to motivate them to get rid of their rickety contraptions and switch over to brand new E-bikes that not only are much more economical to run but also come with a 3 years warranty on the bike and battery," said a release from the company.

As per Hero's estimates, there are at-least 5 crore old and highly polluting, petrol guzzling two-wheelers still running on the Indian roads. Such vehicles, both scooters and motorcycles, have pollution levels much higher than Bharat Stage-IV bikes these days and consume twice the petrol for the same distance.

Hero Electric's scooter range starts from Rs 46,000 and ends at Rs 87,000 after deducting the subsidy from the central government. The Delhi-based company switched to lithium-ion battery technology completely after the government announced last year that subsidy on the lead acid battery technology will be withdrawn

"A straight saving of Rs 70,000 on the petrol and the maintenance of bike that the customer would have spent on his old bike can be achieved with the switching over to electric," the release said.

Hero Electric is also rolling out its national campaign in over 20 cities, including Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, Chennai, Rohtak, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Lucknow. The nationwide campaign is being launched from the first week of this month and aims to promote the benefits and usage of electric two-wheelers.

Under this promotional drive the company will have touch points in residential complexes, markets, malls, schools and colleges and corporate institutions. Hero Electric has a pan-India network of more than 450 touch points.