Hero Electric, the electric bike manufacturer, has raised Rs 160 crore from Alpha Capital Advisors, for a “significant” minority stake. The company will use the funding to diversify its products, acquire new tech, and on research and development. Hero Electric is also planning to launch products in a phased manner by adding to its manufacturing capacity in the next 5 years. Hero claims to have 45% of India’s electric bike market, and has launched 15 electric vehicles (EVs) in the last 10 years. State’s EV policies Earlier today, the Kerala state government signed an MoU with World Resources Institute to implement an electric vehicles policy. The state is looking at getting “adequate” power availability, charging networks, and a “favourable” power tariff according to the report. Kerala is looking to get 1 million EVs on the road by 2022; and a pilot fleet of 200,000 bikes, 50,000 3-wheelers, 1000 goods carriers, 3,000 buses and 100 ferry boats by 2020. In September 2017, Karnataka approved an “Electric Vehicle and Energy Storage Policy 2017” to produce alternative fuel vehicles, reduce fossil fuel dependency and reduce pollution in the state. FAME, EVs and the future While India does not have an EV policy in place yet, in August this year, Economic Times reported that the government was mulling over one. A programme called “Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles” aka FAME was started in 2015 under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP - pdf) 2020, which, by the government’s own…
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