The all-electric Surge 32 by Hero MotoCorp is slated to enter series production within a year. This unique vehicle, which combines a two-wheeler and a three-wheeler, can now be registered under a newly created L2/L5 category. Sources say Hero MotoCorp foresees a modest potential of 10,000 units per annum, and the model may be ready for a market launch by mid-2025.
Speaking on the sidelines of the EICMA 2024 motorcycle trade fair held earlier this month in Milan, Italy, Dr Pawan Munjal, executive chairman and whole-time director of Hero MotoCorp, said: “For the first time ever, around the globe and in India, we now have the government’s OK to register these vehicles to take them on the road. Both will have separate registration plates. But once the scooter goes into the three-wheeler, then it becomes one united vehicle. So, it’s ‘united we stand’. We need the three-wheeler when I want to go out with my family, and when I need only the two-wheeler for deliveries, I have the scooter, the electric scooter to take out.”
Autocar India‘s ‘Confidential’ news section in its November 2024 edition first broke the news about Hero MotoCorp planning to produce the Surge EV.
To get it certified for registration, Surge and Hero MotoCorp have had to work with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to create a new registration category for the S32. Called ‘L2-5’, this is defined as a “2-Wheeler-3-Wheeler Combi Module of a three-wheeled motor vehicle constructed in such a way that a two-wheeled vehicle of category L2 is combined with a non-self-propelled rear module unit. It can be separated or combined as and when required”.
What makes the Surge 32 EV unique is that it is designed to quickly and conveniently convert between a two-wheeler and a three-wheeler.
The Surge 32 , which is based on a modular EV platform called S32, has been readied by ‘Surge’, a startup fully owned by Hero MotoCorp (it is part of HeroHatch, the company’s incubation centre), and it has spent the last few years working on a modular EV platform that it calls the S32. What makes it unique is that it is designed to quickly and conveniently convert between a two-wheeler and a three-wheeler. Essentially, the Surge 32, which has 40 patents, comprises a rickshaw without a front wheel, into which an e-scooter slots and also acts as the front wheel. In this form, the rear wheel of the e-scooter is off the ground and rests on the rickshaw platform.
The e-scooter can then also be decoupled and used by itself. The rickshaw and the e-scooter both feature independent powertrains and battery packs, but the controls are common. When the scooter couples to the rickshaw section, there is also an electronic connector that needs to be plugged in, after which the scooter’s handlebar controls also control the rickshaw powertrain and brakes.
The Surge 32, which has been conceptualised and built in India, redefines the perception of three-wheelers and has recently won the Red Dot: Best of the Best award in product design for the innovation in the vehicle that can switch between a two-wheeler and a three-wheeler in just three minutes.