Hero MotoCorp’s first foray into electric mobility will be in the form of an e-scooter planned to be launched under the company’s recently established Vida sub-brand. The scooter was first scheduled to launch in March 2022, but was subsequently delayed to July 2022. Now, Hero says it is gearing up to launch the Vida brand in the festive season, meaning the scooter will likely debut around September this year.
The reason for the delay is a story that has become increasingly, and depressingly, familiar in the automotive world recently. Hero says it is facing “enormous supply chain issues” and “shortage of various components, including semiconductors”. A number of recent launches have had to be postponed due to this, with one of the most prolific being the KTM RC 390, which was scheduled to launch as early as January this year, but eventually only hit our market last month.
Funnily enough, despite the semiconductor shortage issues that it cites, Hero recently launched the Splendor+ XTEC, which is more feature-loaded than its standard counterparts, specifically in terms of electronic features. The biggest addition is fully digital instrumentation that features Bluetooth connectivity. Read all about the new Splendor here.