Chip shortage disrupts Hero's EV supply

The semiconductor shortage has hit hard the supply of Hero Electric this month. The disruption has forced the company to increase the waiting list to over 60 days for the customers, it said in a statement.

The situation is that some dealers don't even have stock to display.

However, the homegrown EV maker revealed that it will utilise this delivery gap as an opportunity to ramp up production capacity at its Ludhiana (Punjab) and Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh) plants and work towards smoother supply chain flow.  

Speaking on being unable to meet the market demand, Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Electric, said, It’s like putting an emergency brake on a fast-moving train.

"Our sales were almost doubling month on month and we somehow managed with sourcing from different geographies but the war collapsed a major supply chain resulting in this disruption," he said. 

Meanwhile, we are using this time to enhance our plant capacity to increase our production volumes as well as revisit our systems and processes related to batteries to further reinforce the quality assurance of our bikes, Gill added.

Gill, who is also the Director General of Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles (SMEV), acknowledged that the recent fire incidents are awakening call for the EV industry. He stressed that all the players should constantly improve their designs and quality to repose confidence in the electric mobility. 

Incidentally, Mint has recently reported that electric two- and three-wheeler makers in India may hike heir product prices to offset higher costs of imported battery cells amid supply disruptions caused by the Ukraine-Russia conflict. 

While Gill acknowledged that increasing prices of battery cells and higher raw material costs are affecting the industry, he maintained that the overall price rise of electric scooters should not be more than 5-7%. At that time, he maintained that Hero Electric doesn’t plan to raise its product prices currently.