Hero to Enter Brazil in 2016; New Plant in Columbia

Hero MotoCorp is going places, well literally! After opening up in Bangladesh (which will also house Hero’s first full-fledged manufacturing facility outside India), they are planning to enter the growing Brazilian market by 2016 according to a report on Economic Times.

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This would be a part of their global expansion plan via which they intend to be present in 50 new markets by the year 2020. They also want to have 20 manufacturing facilities globally by the same time. Under the same plan, they intend to start work on their 70 million dollars Columbian manufacturing facility within the next couple of months.

The company management has clarified that Hero MotoCorp is targeting an entry around the Olympics in Rio de Janerio in 2016. They are also developing special engines as per their market requirements. Brazilian automotive market uses ethanol amalgamated petrol which makes it all the more essential for research and development processes. Thus, the current crop of engines which Hero has would not work there as stock.

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Brazil is one of the largest markets in South America and should be an interesting market for Hero to tap. The company is also trying to modify their present crop of engines (which presently do duty in their products) with the help of AVL; the Austrian based automotive consulting firm and research institute. Hero had tied up with AVL Engineering to develop engines for Hero after the latter broke up with Honda.

It has not been decided yet whether they would initially bring the motorcycles from India or from the upcoming Columbian plant. Though, due to the huge size of the market, they will eventually have to set up a plant in Brazil itself. The estimated size of the Brazilian two wheeler market is two million units per annum.

After having showcased some brilliant products like the Hastur concept and HX250R, Hero is surely ready to spread its wings and fly.

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