Business - Hero Electric to set up 2,000 recharging station

Hero Electric on Thursday said that it would be rapidly expanding the infrastructure for electric vehicles by setting up recharging stations, thereby augmenting the demand for such bikes.Currently the company has 12 charging stations which are operational in the national capital and it plans to expand it to 10,000 charging stations. “We are planning to set up 2000 outlets to facilitate electric bike owners to recharge their vehicle. We hope to expand the number of stations to 10,000 over the next three years,” said the company’s Managing Director, Mr Naveen Munjal.Explaining the business model, he said that the company had trained mechanics of existing garage owners to provide recharging and servicing facility for electric vehicles also. The cost of charging the battery is Rs 5 an hour, allowing the vehicle to cover a distance of approximately 10-20 km. Mr Munjal declined to comment on the investment for setting up the charging station stating that the company was hoping to bring down the cost per unit gradually and after the initial period, there could be joint investment made from the dealers end who would be setting up such stations. The company also intends to set up stations at popular places like parking lots, malls, schools throughout the country to cater to the infrastructure requirement for selling electric vehicles. The company from April-July sold around 18,000 units and plans to sell 65,000 units by the year end. Hero Electric has a total capacity of around 70,000 units to produce its range of electric vehicles like Maxi and the Optima.