Harshavardhan Chitale, the brand new chief government officer (CEO) of Hero MotoCorp Ltd, considers premium merchandise, scooters, electrical automobiles and exports are areas of robust progress potential for India’s largest two-wheeler maker.
“I’ve travelled extensively and now met with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, sellers, suppliers, companions, and naturally, our workforce. These interactions have given me excellent perception into what makes us the chief,” Chitale stated in his first remarks since taking up as chief government in an interplay with analysts.
Chitale is the third new CEO in India’s vehicle trade over the past six months as a brand new crop of management takes the helm at a number of the largest firms within the area, together with BMW and Hyundai Motor India, which noticed Hardeep Singh Brar and Tarun Garg take over as chief executives, respectively.
In an almost hour-long chat with analysts on Friday after the corporate’s third-quarter earnings had been introduced Thursday, Learn it fielded questions on the worldwide enterprise, whereas letting his senior administration colleagues, together with Vikram Kasbekar, Ashutosh Varma, Vivek Anand, and Kausalya Nandakumar, take home business-related queries.
The corporate reported a report quarterly income of ₹12,784 crore in October-December. Hero MotoCorp’s revenue rose 15% year-on-year to ₹1,275 crore within the quarter.
“We see a giant headroom for progress and market share growth in classes like scooters, in premium bikes, in world markets, in EV, and likewise elements and equipment enterprise,” Chitale stated.
Chitale’s progress technique will embody each premiumization of portfolio in addition to growth of the corporate within the electrical automobile class because it defends its market management within the nation from Honda and TVS.
The corporate’s premium motorbike vary contains the Xpulse, Xtreme, and Karizma sequence.
Tech background
Coming from a non-vehicle background, Chitale has his job minimize out after the abrupt departure of his predecessor, Niranjan Gupta, in April 2025, inside two years of his appointment.
Gupta’s appointment got here as a part of succession planning at Hero MotoCorp, which was led by Pawan Munjal as chief government for over twenty years since 2001. After Gupta’s departure in April, chief know-how officer Vikram Kasbekar acted as interim CEO earlier than the corporate narrowed down on Chitale to steer the operations.
Hero MotoCorp shouldn’t be the one two-wheeler firm which is seeing a brand new crop of management taking the stage. Whereas Sudershan Venu took over the chairman of TVS Motor Co. in 2025, Bajaj Auto managing director Rajiv Bajaj’s son Rishab Bajaj can also be slowly stepping in to steer the corporate’s cost within the electrical automobile phase.
Venu has set his sights on increasing Nortonthe worldwide premium motorbike enterprise TVS acquired in 2020. Rishabh is targeted on making the Chetak EV profitable.
Chitale started his profession in Tata Administrative Companies, a pool of younger, educated professionals deployed by the group in its firms. Inside a 12 months, he moved to tech big Honeywell, the place he spent greater than 16 years. From right here, he moved to HCL Enterprise, the place he turned the CEO of HCL Infosystems Ltd.
Chitale then moved to world lighting big Signify, the proprietor of manufacturers like Phillips, spending greater than a decade in numerous management roles, together with vice chairman and CEO.
In his greater than three-decade-long profession, Hero MotoCorp marks his first stint as the top of an vehicle firm. His predecessor was not a long-time government at an vehicle firm, having labored at Unilever and Vedanta. Nevertheless, earlier than being elevated to the chief government place, Gupta spent six years at Hero as chief monetary officer.
Worldwide focus
“Africa, Latin America, and new growth in Europe, all proceed to be alternatives for us. We have now additionally began, on a low base, our presence now within the Philippines,” stated Chitale. “The worldwide market is a giant space of focus, and whereas we’re increasing quickly, there may be nonetheless a giant headroom for progress, and we’re centered on that.”
The corporate’s presence in worldwide markets and EVs stays low.
“HMCL is specializing in constructing its presence within the government phase, pushed by new merchandise and ongoing upgradation of retailers. The current launches of Glamor X, Destini 125 and Xoom 125 have obtained a constructive buyer response, resulting in market share good points,” analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equities wrote in a observe on 6 February.
“HMCL is well-positioned to profit, because it has a large community and robust presence in 100–125cc classes. Going forward, we anticipate a quantity/income CAGR of 4%/7% over FY26–28E,” they added.
Up to now 12 months, the corporate’s shares surged 36% in opposition to an 18% rise within the Nifty Auto index. On Friday, the inventory settled 0.35% in comparison with a 0.52% decline in Nifty Auto.