Honda has patented two new scooter designs in India, the Winner X and the NS125LA, both of which are currently sold in overseas markets.
The Winner X is a sporty 150cc underbone machine, rolling on 17-inch wheels and powered by a liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine. Output levels are a respectable 15.6hp and 13.5Nm, and the drive reaches the wheel through a 6-speed gearbox and a chain-drive system. It’s also quite a feature-rich two-wheeler, equipped with things like keyless operation, fully digital instrumentation, a USB charging port and all-LED lighting.
The NS125LA, meanwhile, is a more practical offering, taking the form of a 125cc family scooter. It cuts a more conventional figure, with a functional flat floorboard and fairly conservative bodywork. Despite the similar displacement figure, it does not share its powertrain with the Activa 125 or any other 125cc Honda scooter sold in India. What it gets is a 124.9cc air-cooled motor producing 8.97hp and 9.87Nm, making it slightly more powerful but a little less torquey than the Activa. It also gets many of the same features the Winner does, barring ABS.
What’s important here is that both these patent filings are almost certainly a case of Honda protecting its intellectual property, rather than planning to launch the models here. There is no market for geared underbone scooters in India, and the NS is a China-specific model (where emission norms are more lax), meaning that its engine likely doesn’t meet Euro 5 or BS6 emissions standards. This rules out the possibility of either model being launched in our market.
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
