A brief visit to Hero Centre of Innovation and Technology, Jaipur

Hero CIT visit

Realising a vision is one of the best rewards you can have for years of hard work. Hero MotoCorp is now enjoying that sweet taste of success. Its journey to it, no doubt, was fraught with many twists and turns. A few years ago, the company was dependent on its erstwhile partner Honda for all its technical and other vehicle-related research. The partnership broke and Hero MotoCorp was forced to look elsewhere. Now, Hero has its own technology centre, which is one of a kind. So Hero invited a couple of journalists to see what they’ve built and honestly, I was really looking forward to it.

Named as the Centre of Innovation and Technology (CIT), this 247-acre facility is situated just outside Jaipur, Rajasthan, in a small town called Kukas. What will eventually be the workplace of over 500 engineers, is being built with an investment of close to Rs 850 crore (basically, their profits from one quarter) and a lot of time. This facility has just one goal – develop world class two-wheeled products for India and the global markets. The welcome at the facility reflected the secrecy of the innovations going on inside and so armed with just a pair of headphones and a Hero official for company, we started the tour of the CIT.

I often got a feeling of being in Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory through this trip. Each floor and each room had something to gape at and learn from. Our tour started from the ground floor and then limited to only the third floor.  Here what caught my attention was the miniature layout of the CIT which looks amazing and Hero’s entire range starting from CD 100, CBZ to the Karizma ZMR. After a brief stopover near the Impulse we moved onto the third floor which houses the design studio.  While I was really excited to see this place, it turned out to be a disappointment for me because we weren’t allowed to go inside for obvious reasons. Hiroyuki Miyo, head of the styling design studio greeted us near the door and briefed us on the goings on inside. This studio creates design sketches, followed by clay modelling. And yes, I did manage to see a big sketch of a naked motorcycle with Z1000 as inspiration but we’ll talk about this when we’ve something concrete.

Next we moved on to one of the important centres of the facility – the Engineering department. They are the ones who make sure that a product design is feasible, doable and practical for real world conditions. For instance, they decide whether the fuel tank on the Splendor 110 iSmart is practical or not. This section is divided into various areas. The process begins with the design studio handing over their initial sketches to this division for approval and as per them, they’ve all the software in the world to achieve this. Once this department okays the design, it then goes into prototype manufacturing. And trust me when I say this, I did feel like Charlie, I really never wanted to get out of this facility. With world-class 3D printers in place, it was an amazing sight to see each part being made as per the specifications. Once this is ready, the actual metal or plastic component is created in-house and assembled to create a complete bike. But before they do this, each of these parts is tested individually. During my visit, the team was doing a vibration test of rear view mirrors of some mass market bike and chassis flex test. Once a part is tested and validated, it goes to the final prototype assembly area, where the bike or scooter is finally assembled. It then has to pass through various rigorous testing and validation including electromagnetic radiation test. Once this test is complete, the prototype is taken to the test track, which is unique and that’s why it deserves a different story, which will be up soon.

And yes, I did ride a motorcycle on this test track. The visit ended with a one to one interaction with Pawan Munjal, CEO, MD, Hero MotoCorp and Markus Braunsperger, CTO, Hero MotoCorp. We hope Hero MotoCorp comes out with really good motorcycles and scooters for the Indian as well as the global markets in the future. Okay now, when’s the rumoured Impulse 250 coming?