Greetings! There are a lot of things going around in the motorcycle market from the launch of new bikes to the break of successful joint ventures. When it comes to break up in context of the two wheeler market, the first thing coming to everybody’s mind is the Hero Honda joint venture menace.
Hero Honda pulled their ways apart somewhere last year and since then both the companies are only working on building their own brands and revenues. We at Bike Advice are continuously involved in tracking down the story for our readers. As per the latest development in the story, Hero MotoCorp (also known as Hero Honda till they receive the certificate of incorporation) is looking for engineering and design experts in order to develop technology base so that they can retain their top spot in the industry post its separation from Honda .
Though there is a clause in the memorandum of understanding between Hero and Honda that the latter can actually provide technical support to Hero till the end of 2014, Hero group feels like they have to be self dependent so that the company ‘s fate is not ruined after 2014. Thus the company is taking all the mandatory steps in order to build their brand and protect it. Mr. Ravi Sud, CFO of Hero group said that technology tie ups are brain storming and also a long term process. He said that the company is exploring various avenues and is looking for various tie ups and contracts with foreign firms for engines, transmission and design capabilities. It is clear that Hero is evolving its own technology and trying to produce new bikes on their own without being dependent on any other outsider.
Mr. Sud also said that the companies like Recardo and AVL from UK and Austria are good in engines and for design it would be Europe or Japan. Although he mentioned names of few companies, he did not clarify whether Hero group is in talks with them. News also has it that the company is also looking to hire engineering experts to strengthen their R&D. All in all, Hero group is all set to make their mark and is looking to strengthen the areas they were lacking. We will have to wait and see if Hero can actually make it bigger on their own and roll some new models based on their own technology.
