Electric vehicle spark fires up R&D spending by legacy two-wheeler majors

Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor crossed Rs 1,000 crore in R&D spend for the first time, as legacy OEMs accelerate innovation to compete with new-age EV players

Fuelled by the electric vehicle (EV) revolution, a sharper technology focus, and an appetite for global reach, Indian legacy two-wheeler giants — Hero MotoCorp, TVS Motor Company, Eicher Motors, and Bajaj Auto — have thrown open the throttle on research and development (R&D) spending. In five years, their outlays have soared, mirroring the turbulence of a market shaken by newer names like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, and Greaves Electric.

 

Market leader Hero MotoCorp and TVS Motor, which has been making waves this year with

its iQube EV, have both breached the ₹1,000 crore mark in innovation expenditure.

Together, the four companies spent