Hero Electric drags Hero Moto to court over use of brand name in EV space

The growing interest in electric vehicles has landed two sections of the Munjal family in a legal tangle just over a decade after the different factions hammered out a settlement of its various businesses.

Vijay Munjal and son Naveen Munjal, owners of Hero Electric, have taken cousin Pawan Munjal, CMD of two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp, to court for the use of the Hero brand name for Hero MotoCorp's soon-to-debut EV range.

Vijay and Naveen Munjal's Hero Electric has been in the EV business for 15 years. The branding issue did not crop up before as EVs were not a hot-pocket business segment until recently, sources told TOI.


With Hero Moto entering the EVs segment in March of this year, Vijay and Naveen Munjal are claiming exclusive use of the brand name in the EV space.

"Now that EVs are red hot, suddenly the use of the Hero name has become a brand issue," a source close to the matter told TOI. "At the end of the day, the core brand is Hero and not Hero Electric so products from competing companies will face a challenge."

When contacted Naveen Munjal refused to comment on the matter since it is sub-judice. A Hero MotoCorp spokesperson also refused to comment.

Sources told TOI that there has been no out-of-court dialogue initiated between the two factions. "There has been no discussion on this for the last 10 years because earlier no one was interested in getting into the EV segment."

(With inputs from TOI)