Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), India’s second-largest two-wheeler maker, on Wednesday revealed its electric vehicle (EV) roadmap, which includes setting up a dedicated EV factory, launching the first two EVs in 2023-24, and establishing 6,000 battery exchange points in the country.<\/p>\n
HMSI plans to establish a specialised unit for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs), named ‘Factory E’, at its Narsapura plant located in Karnataka.<\/p>\n
Factory E will be created by converting an existing production line that currently manufactures internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, said Atsushi Ogata, HMSI managing director and chief executive officer.<\/p>\n
“The ICE vehicle production line at the Narsapura plant will be shifted to a new unit at Gujarat’s Vithalapur plant,” he added.<\/p>\n
Factory E will initially produce 600,000 units per annum, starting operations in March next year.<\/p>\n
The EV production capacity will be increased gradually in phases, aiming to produce 1 million units by 2030, Ogata said.<\/p>\n
Overall, the company’s manufacturing capacity of 5.2 million units per annum at its four plants in India shall increase to 6.2 million units by 2030.<\/p>\n
Ola Electric, Hero Electric, Okinawa, and Ampere — which are relatively new companies — are the top four players in the Indian electric two-wheeler market, with more than 60 per cent market share as of 2022.<\/p>\n
Established two-wheeler makers Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, and TVS Motors have already launched their electric scooters in India.<\/p>\n
Ogata said HMSI will launch two electric scooters in 2023-24.<\/p>\n
The first scooter will be a mid-range fixed-battery vehicle, while the second will be a swappable-battery-run vehicle.<\/p>\n
“Both EVs will be launched around March next year, around the time of the commencement of production at Factory E,” he mentioned.<\/p>\n
The first EV will be based on the Activa platform, but its name will be different, he said.<\/p>\n
The first EV has been designed and developed by the research and development (R&D) team in India, but the second model has been conceptualised in Japan, he added.<\/p>\n
He said the success of the second EV, which runs on swappable batteries, will depend on the kind of investment made in establishing battery swapping stations in India.<\/p>\n
“In the beginning, there would be challenges,” he mentioned.<\/p>\n
Apart from EVs, the company will also launch a 160 cc engine motorcycle, 350 cc engine motorcycle, and 125 cc engine scooter by Diwali this year, he noted.<\/p>\n
HMSI currently runs just 23 battery swapping stations in Bengaluru.<\/p>\n
Once Bengaluru is saturated with such battery exchange points, the company will start establishing stations in other cities of southern India.<\/p>\n
Then, it will set them up across the entire country.<\/p>\n
“We want about 6,000 battery exchange points across the country,” Ogata noted.<\/p>\n
He said the level of localisation in EVs would be lower than that of ICE vehicles as certain high-technology components have to be imported.<\/p>\n
Ogata said the company would significantly expand its exports from India.<\/p>\n
Currently, it ships 18 models to 38 countries.<\/p>\n
In FY24, it would export 20 models to 58 countries.<\/p>\n
About 4 per cent of the 15.3 million two-wheelers sold in India in 2022 were electric two-wheelers, according to VAHAN data.<\/p>\n
In 2022, the electric two-wheeler segment grew by 305 per cent in volume terms.<\/p>\n
Asked if the rising sales of electric two-wheelers impacting the sales of Activa, HMSI’s most popular brand that runs using ICE, Ogata said: “We do not feel the impact of electric two-wheeler sales on Activa.<\/p>\n
“There was some downsizing due to Covid-19, but the demand is back now.<\/p>\n
“We have a sizable order book for Activa right now.”<\/p>\n
According to SIAM’s data, HMSI’s domestic sales jumped from 3.15 million in the April-February period in FY22 to 3.82 million in FY23.<\/p>\n
“The company has seen a growth of 21 per cent during this time period when two-wheeler sales in India have grown by 16 per cent.<\/p>\n
“We expect our sales to see similar growth in FY24.<\/p>\n
“Growth will be in lower double digits,” said Yogesh Mathur, operating head, sales and marketing, HMSI.<\/p>\n
The road map<\/strong><\/p>\n