Hero invests Rs 450 crore in new R&D centre

Hero MotoCorp, the country's largest two-wheeler maker, said it has commenced construction of a research and development centre that will create a "pool of global talent" and play a key role in the company's future product development. The company said it will initially spend Rs 450 crore on the construction of the centre at Kukas, near Jaipur in Rajasthan, and that it will be ready by the first quarter of 2015.

"Kukas is going to be on the global map with a truly international centre of excellence, not just in terms of its design, development, testing and validation facilities but also in terms of the diversified pool of human talent from all over the world," Pawan Munjal, managing director and chief executive of Hero MotoCorp, told ET.

"We will acquire the best of global talent to build a truly multi-cultural, multi-national set up here, which will also play the role of a catalyst in nurturing multi-faceted local talent through knowledge sharing." The company said the centre will have more than 600 engineers working on Hero's future product line-up, as it expands its global footprint. In two years of the commencement of its solo journey, Hero MotoCorp has scaled up its in-house research and development capabilities. It employs over 400 engineers at its R&D centres housed in Gurgaon and Dharuhera plants in Haryana.

"Hero's new R&D centre will play a crucial role in developing a range of next-generation twowheelers for its customers in India and around the world," according to an independent industry analyst. "With the company spreading its manufacturing base to more than 20 locations across continents by 2020, they really need such a centre to scale up their technological prowess."

In an interview with ET at the time of this announcement, Munjal had said that he was looking at both organic as well as inorganic options for growth. He had said that the first of the new launches will happen around the festive season this year, although "the completely new model will come up in 2014."