“You Are Limitless”: Sanjay Bhan on bringing Hero Motor Corp to Britain
Hero MotoCorp’s Executive VP Sanjay Bhan tells us how the Indian giant plans to win hearts, minds, and miles across Europe.
It’s early morning at Oulton Park, and the mist still clings to the hedgerows. The asphalt is drizzle-soaked, and the air smells like autumn. But Oulton feels far too quiet to be a race circuit. There’s no revs of bikes being warmed, no paddock announcements, and no obligatory bacon butties.
Just me and some other journos, a line of identical new bikes, and a logo most British riders don’t really recognise.
Hero.
With nine million bikes a year and one rolling off a production line every 18 seconds, there is no denying Hero is a huge brand.Parked before me is its first offering for the UK market, the Hunk 440, a bike that looks like a retro naked and sounds like a pub boast. It’s a simple single-cylinder middleweight, and for most of the world, it’s a bread-and-butter Hero product. But here, it’s something bigger: the first taste of what the Indian giant has planned for Europe.
A few hours later, over coffee in a quiet corner of the paddock, I sit down with Sanjay Bhan, Executive Vice President of Hero Motor Corp. He’s just come from launches in Spain and Italy and is now prepping for France and Germany. He speaks like a man who’s got a clear map in his head of where this brand is going. And how the Hunk 440 fits into that plan.
“You Are Limitless”
“Germany is a very important part of our international outlook,” Bhan tells me. “We get the best of both worlds — the scale and capability of India, and the innovation of Europe. They work very easily together.”
That combination of scale and refinement is what Hero’s banking on. You can’t outbuild the Japanese or outspend the Chinese without a plan, and Hero’s plan is remarkably simple: build bikes that more people can afford to ride.
“There are two ways to look at it,” Bhan continues. “There’s the commuter stage of biking, getting from A to B. Then there’s lifestyle biking — having a bike as a lifestyle accessory. In the UK, that’s where we want to be. We’re not here to challenge anyone. Hero’s job is to expand the market and get younger people onto bikes.”
He smiles when he says it, but it’s a serious point. In the UK, new riders are hard to find, priced out or intimidated by complex licence legislation. Hero’s slogan “You Are Limitless” might sound like a hashtag, but in Bhan’s version, it’s about freedom of access.
“Give yourself enough freedom to choose what’s best for you,” he says. “We’ll deliver — whether that’s through quality, warranty, or price. We try to break all barriers to entry.”
And that, really, is what the Hunk 440 is built to do, and we assume, all the bikes that will follow.
What does year one in the UK look like?
When I press Bhan for numbers in year one, he dodges politely. “We’re not looking at numbers… We just want to get out there, tell our story, and get customers to recognise us. The numbers will follow.”
He’s pragmatic enough to know that in the UK, success won’t come from glossy adverts or brand heritage — Hero has neither here yet. It’ll come from experience.
“Our focus is not on buying,” he says. “It’s tempting to push people to come buy something. We prefer to say ‘come try’. Trying the bike will lead to some at least, buying the bike”
And he’s right. Because after a morning in the saddle, I’m half-convinced myself. The Hunk 440 isn’t exciting in the conventional sense, but it’s disarmingly likeable, very easy to ride, seems well built and free of nasty surprises. It’s a reminder that not every bike needs to be an event; some just need to make everyday riding easier and more enjoyable.
The adventure angle – Dakar DNA and what’s next
Hero, of course, isn’t new to off-road. The factory team has Dakar Rally experience, and the learnings have filtered into the bikes it sells elsewhere. When asked if an adventure bike is incoming, his answer is swift.
“Absolutely. Very safe to assume that. We already launched the adventure bike in Italy and Spain. For the UK, we’ll need a bigger bike — we’re working on that.”
He won’t give specs, but he hints that something larger (We assume in the 400-600 cc space) will arrive next year. A proper middleweight ADV with real-world pricing? That could be interesting — especially if it carries over the easy-going feel and approachable feel I’ve got from the Hunk 440.
Behind the scenes, the brand’s German tech centre will likely play a key role. “A lot of our international expansion will be defined by the work happening there,” Bhan says. “We’ve got great talent in Europe and in India, working together.”
For a company of Hero’s size, that global R&D collaboration could prove the difference between being “the Indian Honda” (which is a phrase that has serious history) and being a credible, world-class manufacturer.
Dealers, digital buzz and word of mouth
Hero already has 25 dealers in the UK, with plans to hit 45 next year. For Bhan, they’re the front line of the brand’s mission. “People talk about it, they experience the bikes, they feel great about them — then the word of mouth kicks in.”
In an age where most of us research bikes online long before we visit a showroom, Hero’s hoping social media will do part of the job. A few enthusiastic riders posting about test rides goes a long way for a new brand. The Hunk’s simple, robust charm could make it a hit among practical riders looking for value - as long as their performance expectations of it are realistic.
Hero isn’t here to bulldoze the UK market. It’s here to quietly expand it. And the Hunk 440 is the first tool for the job. It’s a simple, honest, affordable motorcycle with decent build quality, a friendly personality and a refreshingly clear purpose.
In my review, I summed it up like this: “It’s super easy to ride, unintimidating, handles like it should and holds no nasty surprises out on the road.” And that’s still the essence of it. The Hunk 440 isn’t pretending to be exotic or extreme. It’s a stepping-stone machine for real-world riders. A bike you can learn on, commute on, or just enjoy without worrying about insurance renewals or tyre bills.
Hero’s challenge now is to prove reliability, support its dealers, and show British riders that a global giant can also build bikes with heart. If it can do that, Sanjay Bhan’s cautious optimism might just pay off.
For now, the Hunk 440 stands as the quiet start of something bigger, the moment Hero MotoCorp stopped being a name on someone else’s export chart and became a brand British riders might actually consider for themselves.
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
