Indian giant Hero MotoCorp Ltd., which claims for itself the title of "the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer", followed up April sales of 533,305 units (compared to 571,054 in April 2014, -6.6 percent) with 569,876 in May 2015 (compared to 602,481 in May 2014, -5.4 percent).
The company says that its HF Deluxe commuter bike has reached the million unit sales mark for this financial year, making it the third Hero platform to do so - the other two being the Hero Splendor and Hero Passion.
Hero also reports sales of over 350,000 units so far for the Splendor iSmart since its launch last year; Hero claim it as "the world’s most fuel efficient bike with a mileage of 102.5 km per litre".
For its full 2014/2015 financial year (ended March 31st 2015) Hero says it sold 6,631,826 PTW units (1,575,501 in its 4th quarter, the first three months of 2015), up by +6.2 percent from the 6,245,895 units sold in 2013/2014, which itself was 2.8 percent growth over 2012/2013.
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| Splendor iSmart |
Hero MotorCorp CEO Pawan Munjal said that the company has "lined up an investment" of over US $450m in order to "add capacities and brand building initiatives in domestic and global markets over the next two years. This is in keeping with the company’s vision of expanding its global footprint to 50 countries and total annual sales of 12 million units by the year 2020".
The company has taken a hit in its 2014/2015 fiscals for the closure of Erik Buell Racing (EBR), in which it has a 49.2 percent ownership stake. Though reports suggest that can "only" have been for $5m as non-payment of a $20m balance is being cited as one of the reasons for EBR's problems.
In March, HMC-MM Auto Ltd., the Joint Venture between Hero MotoCorp Ltd. and Milan. Italy based Magneti Marelli inaugurated its "first autonomous ‘Production and Development Centre’ at Manesar (Haryana), India. With the commencement of operations at the Development Centre, HMCL is set to become India’s first two-wheeler manufacturer to have its own EFI Product-line".
