Not that one could ever accuse Honda of being lax in the Indian market, but the Japanese giant is really getting serious about its product line-up for our country. It recently launched the Shine 100, its first-ever 100cc commuter, to take Hero head-on in that hugely competitive segment, and has big plans for upcoming launches too.
At the time of the Shine’s launch, Honda announced a number of new models for India, including multiple electric scooters. Here’s the full list:
Honda 350cc cruiser bike
Honda’s CB350 platform currently offers the H’ness retro motorcycle and the CB350RS, which sports a bit of a cafe racer vibe. These bikes allow Honda to take on the likes of the Royal Enfield Classic 350 and Hunter 350, but it doesn’t currently have an answer to the Meteor 350. That could be set to change soon.
Honda has stated that it will be launching a new 350cc motorcycle by Diwali this year, and our educated guess is that this will be a cruiser to rival the Meteor. Expect it to sport the same 348cc long-stroke single as the existing bikes, though perhaps with some tweaks. Bottom-end grunt (something that you expect from a cruiser) isn’t necessarily a trademark of this engine, and Honda could play around with gearing and sprocketing to try and compensate for this.
If the new bike hopes to make a dent in Meteor sales, it will need to be priced in the same ballpark. So you can expect it to sit around the Rs 2 lakh to 2.2 lakh mark (ex-showroom). Honda says the bike will be here by November, but you can expect a launch slightly earlier than that, around the festive season.
Two new Honda electric scooters
FY24 will also see Big Red make its debut in the burgeoning electric two-wheeler segment, with not one but two new offerings. Both will take the form of electric scooters, but will differ in their powertrain. The first will sport a fixed battery pack, likely housed in the floorboard (as seen in patent drawings we uncovered), while the second will employ a removable battery pack. The latter will most likely leverage the Honda Mobile Power Pack battery, which is being gradually deployed at swapping stations across the country. It’s also possible that Honda could leverage the massive brand value of the Activa and call either one or both of these scooters the Activa electric or e-Activa. We’ve already seen Suzuki do something similar with its recently revealede-Burgman electric scooter.
New 125cc scooter and 160cc bike from Honda
There are more plans in the petrol-powered space for this year as well. Also on the cards for FY24 are a new 125cc scooter and 160cc motorcycle. The former is likely to share its underpinnings with the Activa 125, and perhaps be dressed in a sportier suit, to take on the likes of the TVS NTorq and Suzuki Avenis. The latter is tipped to borrow its engine from the X-blade and Unicorn, though there are no clues as to what direction Honda will take with this bike. Perhaps we could see an ADV-esque guise, as Honda has done with the CB200X that’s based on the Hornet 2.0.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
