Hero Lectro, the EV division of Hero Motors Company (HMC) is working on a new sales and distribution strategy to bolster the market presence of its newly launched e-cargo vehicles aimed at last-mile logistics segment in India. The company is creating new sales channels for its E Cargo vehicles across 10 cities initially, with a target of up to 80 multi-brand outlets.

The OEM recently announced the launch of its first purpose-built cargo vehicle Hero Lectro WINN, an electric bicycle designed specially to address the last mile e-commerce delivery segment in India, which will soon be supplemented by a three-wheeler cargo vehicle.

The company says there is a need to establish new sales channel rather than using Hero Cycles’ or Hero Lectro’s existing wide distribution networks arises from the fact that e-cargo vehicles have an entirely different target consumer than bicycles or conventional e-biycles. The Lectro range of cargo EVs are majorly aimed at attracting self-employed workers in the last-mile delivery service as these purpose-built vehicles have a huge potential of improving earnings and optimising costs for them as compared to currently used motorised two-wheelers.

Partha Choudhary, president and CEO, Hero Lectro said: “Our target clientele for Hero Lectro WINN and other E Cargo vehicles is the consumer who currently buys motorised two wheelers because over 90% of e-commerce deliveries are happening on motorcycles or scooters. With Hero Lectro WINN, we are presenting an economically and ergonomically more viable alternative for last-mile delivery. This is why we are rolling out a distribution strategy that focuses on having presence at shared points or multi brand retail points that are frequented by our target consumer from their age-old habit.”

Hero Lectro says it will first pilot the strategy across Delhi NCR. Thereafter, the strategy will be implemented across multiple cities through distributor partnerships to enable a widespread visibility of the cargo e-bicycles.

“By the end of this financial year, our objective is to establish our Cargo E Bike’s visibility at upto 80 multi-brand outlets across 10 cities where our target consumer currently visits to buy alternative vehicles. We have envisaged a density of one outlet every 7-8km. After rolling it out in Delhi NCR, this model will then be replicated across 9 other cities namely Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow and Agra,” added Choudhary.

As compared to a motorcycle on which a bulk of deliveries currently happen, a light engineered e-bike with specially crafted storage and payload capacity offers a highly cost-effective solution by significantly lowering the cost per litre of goods storage space. Priced at Rs 40,000, the Hero Lectro cargo e-bike is said to highly affordable as compared to ICE two-wheelers and offers a tremendously cost-effective resource to people earning their living by joining the burgeoning last-mile delivery workforce across India.