Indiantelevision.com Team

(27 May 2008 6:30 pm)

BANGALORE: Hero Electric announced that it plans to sell 70000 two wheeler electric vehicle units (EV) in 2008-09 or 250 per cent more than its last year’s sales of 21,000 units.

Hero Electric also announced plans to launch a range of about 5 Electric Scooters during financial year 2008-09 in its low and high speed categories. Hero Electric already has two low speed electric scooter models in the market since 2007 – Hero Maxi and Hero Optima.

The company has planned ad spends of Rs 200 million, almost double of last fiscal’s media spends. To this effect, it has already started a print campaign in North India as of yesterday. It plans to commence a television campaign after the launch of its high speed scooters, which according to Hero Electric chief executive Naveen Munjal should happen by July this year.

Hero Electric also announced plans to double its dealership network in Karnataka from 15 to 30 to leverage the growth happening in the EV segment in the state. Bangalore has three dealers.

Hero Electric has managed to capture almost 40 per cent of the EV market in Karnataka. The company sold around 6000 EVs here last fiscal. Hero Electric is now targeting sales of 12000 units this year. The company plans to double its existing dealer base to 300 across the country.

The company also announced an investment of around Rs 800 million in boosting its manufacturing plant of EVs in Ludhiana, Punjab besides the development of its R&D facility.

JWT does the creative work for Hero Electric, while Group M is the media buying agency. It is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Hero Group which saw a turnover of about Rs 180 billion last fiscal.