Called ‘Hero Centre of Global Innovation and Research and Design’, the new Hero MotoCorp R&D Center at Kukas, near Jaipur in Rajasthan is developed at an investment of over INR 450 crore. This soon to be inaugurated R&D center is part of the company’s plan to increase R&D spending nearly 6 times in the current fiscal. The company has spent nearly INR 723 crores on R&D in fiscal ended March 31, 2014 as against INR 127 crores spent in the previous fiscal. Hero MotoCorp R&D facilities at Gurgaon and Dharuhera will be shifted to the new facility located around 20 kms from Jaipur. This facility will have around 400 skilled engineers working on upcoming products.
Hero MotoCorp paid special attention to R&D ever since parting ways with partners Honda Motors in 2011. The company spends on capital work in progress. To date most of Hero’s mass market products see the use of Honda technology as a part of the royalty payment agreement between Honda and Hero MotoCorp. This includes their best selling motorcycles Splendor and Passion. This new R&D is aimed at improving their product line-up even further in the coming years. Apart from investing in R&D, Hero has also hired some of the world renowned names like Markus Braunsperger, who is their new CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Before Hero, Markus was Chief Engineer at BMW. They have also overtaken a certain part of Erik Buell Racing, after it filed for bankruptcy.
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The two wheeler maker plans to increase market share from a current 42% to over 50% in home market. At the same time, Hero is expanding its presence in overseas markets like South America, US and Europe. Hero MotoCorp expects to expand production capacity from 6.9 million as on date to 7.65 million in 2016 and to 12 million by 2017.
