Country’s biggest bicycle maker Hero Cycles on Tuesday said that if electric bicycles come under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME2 Scheme), the company can bring more products at lower cost, as low as ₹10,000.

“I want to ask the government what is the reason that they can’t bring the e-bicycles under that scheme? They say it doesn’t come under the Motor Vehicle Act under the EV category. But these e-bicycles have the similar motor, semiconductor, battery and charging system, so why not? If that happens, Hero will bring out an e-bicycle at ₹9,999, the lowest cost e-bike in the world,” Pankaj M Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director, Hero Motors Company, told BusinessLine on the sidelines of a launch here.

Earlier this year, the government had earmarked ₹10,000 crore for three years (till 2022) for FAME 2 scheme. It had sanctioned ₹8,596 crore for incentives out of which ₹1,000 crore had been earmarked for setting up charging stations for EVs in India.

FAME2 must be considered for such products too, Munjal said adding that such initiatives would only make the e-bicycle industry grow as demand is already there but because of the pricing, the market is slow.

Hero Cycles sells e-bikes ranging from ₹18,000 to ₹1.30 lakh. The company aims to manufacture around 2.50 lakh units of such products from next year at its Ghaziabad factory, as the e-bicycles market in India is growing by 50 per cent month-on-month.

The company makes five-lakh conventional bicycles every month at its 15 facilities across the globe. It sold 5.2 million bicycles last year and aims to sell 6 million units this year, Munjal added.

The company meanwhile, launched a new e-bicycle – Lectro EHX20 – priced at ₹1.30 lakh in collaboration with Yamaha Motor Company, Japan and Mitsui & Co India. While Yamaha is providing technology for battery, motor and semiconductor, Mitsui is working as a trade partner.

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