Like its peers, Hero MotoCorp, the country’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, has hiked the price of its flagship electric scooter Vida V1 Pro by ₹6,000. The development comes days after the government reduced the incentives for electric two-wheelers under FAME-II (Faster Adoption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India) to ₹10,000 per kWh from the earlier ₹15,000 per kWh beginning June 1. The cap on incentives for electric two-wheelers has also been slashed by 15% of the ex-factory prices of vehicles against 40% earlier.
Two Hero MotoCorp dealers confirmed with Fortune India that the company has hiked the prices of Vida V1 Pro, stating that despite the price hike the electric scooter is witnessing huge demand. With the price increase, the electric scooter will now be available at ₹1,45,900 (ex-showroom price) from its earlier price of ₹1.39 lakh in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Aurangabad, Noida, Chennai, and Hyderabad. In Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, the ex-showroom price of Hero Vida V1 Pro has been hiked to ₹1,25,900 from ₹1.19 lakh.
Hero MotoCorp launched Vida V1 Pro in October last year, which has been touted as a rival against Ola Electric’s S1 Pro, Ather Energy’s 450X Gen3 and TVS iQube. The electric scooter is equipped with a battery pack of 3.94 kWh (kilowatt hour) and has a range of 110 km. The top speed of Vida V1 Pro is 80 kmph. For charging between 0 to 80%, Vida V1 Pro takes less than 65 minutes. The electric scooter can hit 0- 40 kmph in 3.2 seconds.
Hero MotoCorp clocked a 7% surge in sales to 5,19,474 units in May as against 4,86,704 units sold in the same period last year, thus beating analysts’ estimates. Hero MotoCorp’s domestic sales in May grew by 8.9% year-on-year to 5,08,309 units as against 4,66,466 units in May 2022. In the motorcycle segment, the company witnessed a marginal increase in sales by 8.2% YoY to 4,89,336 units as against 4,52,246 units in May last year. In the scooter segment, the company’s sales, however, declined by 12.5% to 30,138 units as against 34,458 units in the same period last year.
Last week, TVS Motor Company, Ather Energy and Ola Electric also raised the prices of electric scooters. TVS has hiked the price of iQube by ₹17,000-22,000 from June 1. The iQube base and S trims were earlier priced at ₹1,06,384 and ₹1,16,886, respectively in Delhi. Ola Electric has also hiked the price of its electric vehicles by about ₹15,000. Ola Electric’s S1 Pro is now priced at ₹1,39,999, S1 (3KWh) at ₹1,29,999, and S1 Air (3KWh) is priced at ₹1,09,999.
Bengaluru-based Ather Energy also revised the prices of its scooters with 450X now starting at ₹1,45,000 (ex-showroom Bengaluru). The 450X with Pro Pack now costs ₹1,65,435 in Bengaluru, an increase of ₹8,000.
"After the recent announcement of reducing the e2W subsidy cap to 15%(from 40% earlier), the actual cost impact for the vehicles should range between ₹25k-40k. This, as a result, is expected to increase the payback period by 1.5-2.0 years for e2Ws. Inventory across most of the 2W stands at a healthy level of 5-6 weeks," Motilal Oswal said in a note.
