Hero MotoCorp, the largest motorcycle maker in the world by volume, has teamed up with American super bike manufacturer Erik Buell Racing (EBR) to acquire design and technology for an upcoming super bike. The first motorcycle developed under this collaboration will hit the roads in 2013 and will pave the way for EBR's high end, domestically produced super bikes for India. This is the Indian company's first alliance after its partnership with Honda ended, though it can still use the Japanese manufacturer's technology till 2014 on royalty basis.
Pawan Munjal, MD and CEO of Hero MotoCorp, said, “We are going for an area (super bikes) where we are completely missing, for which there is a large market across the globe. We will also be manufacturing high-end engines in India and if there is demand abroad, we would manufacture them there as well.” Hero had earlier worked with EBR to develop its hybrid scooter Leap, which was unveiled at the 2012 New Delhi Auto Expo in January. Equity ownership is not a part of the strategic alliance between the two companies.
EBR, which was known as Buell Motorcycle Company, is a subsidiary of Harley Davidson. The parent company had closed the doors of Buell in 2009 due to increasingly worsening economic conditions and reintroduced it as EBR. Just two years after it was incepted, EBR produced a high performance super bike, called EBR 1190RS. It had manufactured only 100 units of the bike initially in order to appease racing aficionados based in the USA.
Hero MotoCorp works primarily in the 100-225 cc segment of the Indian bike market and will be capable of producing high performance motorcycles with the help of this alliance. According to Munjal, the company is always on the lookout for several technological partnerships in diverse fields. Reportedly, the EBR bikes to be launched in India will bear the Hero badge, while the manufacturer is still undecided about the branding parameters to be followed for the international market. In January 2012, Hero had said that it may also work with UK's Ricardo and Austria's AVL in a bid to improve its technological prowess.
Munjal commented, “We will continue to focus on mass market but to become a global player, anything that we do now on will be to target the global consumer.” In order to enhance the image of its brand in the international market, Hero MotoCorp is foraying into the field of global motorcycle racing. Therefore, it has sponsored two teams in the AMA Pro Racing National Guard Superbikes Championship that will be held in March 2012 in Florida, USA.
Hero's move of introducing a super bike in India is in line with the efforts of companies like Honda, Suzuki and Harley, which have already rolled out super bikes for the domestic market. Likewise, Bajaj Auto has collaborated with Japan-based KTM and Austria-based KTM for developing high performance bikes for India.
