Hero Honda: India's first asbestos free two-wheeler

Hero Honda Motors Ltd makes half the two-wheelers in the country. Hero Honda is the World's No.1 two-wheeler manufacturing company having the trust of more than 5 million customers. The company is a joint venture of Hero Cycles of India and Honda Motor of Japan.



Pawan Munjal, managing director of Hero Honda says, .."There’s no legislation but 2 or 3 years ago, we’ve gone out and taken out all asbestos from our motorcycles and scooters. There’s no asbestos in our brake lining and clutch lining. While we’ve done that and replaced it with some other stuff – let’s say the brake, we’ve had to increase the size of the brake to get the same breaking strength – our cost has gone up. Same way with the clutch. So while you’re doing everything else, you’re also having to increase your costs because of other stuff. Safety, environment. Everyday there are new safety legislations coming in. Which is fine. We’re very much for all of these things. As I said, nobody asked us to do this asbestos thing, we did it ourselves. Because we care. Because we believe that we have this moral responsibility to the society, to the customer."