Hero eyes sales to e-comm firms for e-bikes

India's largest manufacturer of e-bikes, Hero Electric has signed a deal with a Noida-based logistics firm and is in talks with other e-commerce players like Amazon to replace their petrol two-wheelers with the company's battery-powered bikes.

"We have started talking to entities like Amazon and other e-commerce players who are associated with large logistics infrastructures. We have just delivered 100 electric bikes to a Noida-based food delivery logistics company who would be replacing their petrol bikes partly. It would be a test case for us before the idea picks up among other players in the sector," said Sohinder Gill, global CEO, Hero Electric, DNA reported.

Such institutional support was expected to add to the efforts towards adoption of eco-friendly bikes, whose sales had so far languished despite government subsidy.

According to Gill, only about 20,000 electric two-wheelers were sold in India  in the last fiscal, out of which 14,000 were made by Hero.

The lithium-ion battery developed over a considerable period of time by the company in India was being used for the first time in vehicles in the country.

"While the battery cells are being sourced from Japan, the battery management electronics or the heart of the battery has been developed by us," Gill said during the launch of the vehicle in Kolkata.